Secret Santa 2018 (AI)
by Dessi1998
Summary: My present for a Secret Santa event. Basically one-shots of Kirito x Asuna, sometimes interrupted by a story with Koharu (from SAO: Integral Factor).
1. Lunch

**A/N: So this is my present for the Secret Santa event. I hope you like it, Arune. As the description said, it's mainly Kirito x Asuna one-shots. _Mainly_. Every 3 chapters there's a surprise. ^-^**

 **If you're not named Arune but decided to check this story out, I hope you like it. It's mainly fluff, nothing too serious, just something light to read.**

 **I hope you like it...**

* * *

"You know what Lisbeth said to me today? Just now, before lunch break." Asuna asked.

"Huh? What?" You could hardly understand what Kirito was saying as his mouth was full with food.

"That I'm not your personal chef, can't always make you sandwiches and bentos."

Kirito slowed his last bite before answering. "I'm not telling you to make them though."

"That's what I told her. That I make them because I want."

Kirito was quiet for a few more seconds, then, with shining eyes, he said. "What if I bring the food on some days? Like, make a schedule?"

"You sure about this?" Asuna asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Why not? Okay, then I will bring the food tomorrow!"

And so the deal was made. Asuna couldn't wait for tomorrow while Lis just rolled her eyes, telling her friend not to get her hopes up.

On the next day Asuna resisted the urge to prepare something just in case. No, she was sure Kirito would bring food.

Meanwhile, at Kirito's home, more specifically in the kitchen, a tornado could be seen. Kirito had gotten up extra early, he had even planned the menu the previous night. A _menu_. Now, everyone knew he could cook, at least some easy things. But this was important, he wanted to impress Asuna, no matter if it was some lunch for school or actually cooking a serious meal. He knew she was from a rich family and probably had a topnotch chef cooking her dinner every day, he knew he couldn't compare with that.

But he was going to try anyway.

So when Sugu woke up and went down for breakfast, she froze mid-step, wondering what was her brother doing.

"Making lunch for school." He simply explained. And soon he ran off, afraid he'd be late, with a backpack on his back and a basket in one hand.

Lunch break came sooner than usual for Kirito and later than usual for Asuna. One was nervous, the other excited. They met at their usual bench and sighing, Kirito put the basket between them. It had made people stare at him the whole day, some even asking what was in it or what smelled like _that_. What was ' _that_ ' supposed to mean anyway? Did it smell good or bad? Just say it!

Too late now, Asuna was here, probably hungry, waiting for her lunch.

"May I?" She asked and Kirito nodded. Nowhere to run now.

Asuna opened the basket (truth be told, she didn't expect a whole basket, maybe one bento only) and her eyes and mouth opened wide automatically. It was filled with boxes. There were two boxes with some sort of a salad, two boxes with noodles with something else, maybe a sauce. Then two boxes with juice and finally two yoghurts for dessert. Two packets with chopsticks and spoons were also readied at a small pocket in the basket.

It was a whole meal. Three dishes - salad, a main course and a small dessert. When had Kirito had the time to prepare all this? Asuna had never brought something this big for lunch.

While the girl contemplated all of this, quietly staring at all the food, Kirito got another idea. She didn't like it. Yep, that was it. Better not even taste it. He quickly closed the basket, jumping up.

"I-I'll go buy something from the cafeteria, you just wait here."

But Asuna stopped him, her small hand holding his sleeve.

"Kirito-kun, did you do all this?" She asked.

"Um... Yes..." He ruffled his hair, not knowing what else to say.

"When?"

"This morning. Can't guarantee the salad is still fresh though." He laughed nervously.

"How early did you get up?" Asuna looked at him, wide-eyed.

"Err... Earlier than usual." Asuna laughed a little at that.

"Well, why are you going to the cafeteria? We can't just let this go to waste. Let's eat!" And just like that Asuna began taking boxes out, giving one to Kirito and one to herself from everything. She was as excited as a small child on Christmas day but tried not to show it, had a reputation to maintain after all.

An 'itadakimasu' and twenty minutes later, there was no evidence the boxes were ever full with something, everything was eaten. Asuna and Kirito sat on the bench, looking up to the sky above them, having a break after all the food.

"So how was it?" Kirito chanced to ask.

The question made Asuna giggle before answering. "Lis thought you won't manage it."

"Oh." Not the answer he had been expecting. Then again he didn't know what to expect.

"Maybe I should make you bring lunch more often." Asuna said, now more serious. "We have a maid at home, normally she cooks our meals. No one apart from her had ever cooked something especially for me. So thank you, Kirito-kun, this lunch really means a lot to me. And it was really yummy." She smiled that beautiful smile of hers and Kirito decided that it was all worth it.

The planning and researching of recipes, the getting up early, the mayhem in the kitchen, the cleaning, the hurrying, the stares, the nerves, it was all worth it. Just for those words and that smile.

"Then I'll bring lunch whenever you want."


	2. On the motorbike

Asuna quite liked riding on Kirito's motorbike. It was fast, you could feel the wind, kind of felt like you're flying. Yes, the noise wasn't that nice but you got used to that eventually. And she could always hug Kirito to her hearth's content.

Kirito didn't like it as much. Yes, it was useful but considering how soon all old vehicles should stop being used in favour of cleaner air, he wasn't happy about the fact that he had to pay for the bike to be taken away. He had admitted he liked it when Asuna rode with him though.

Now, the first time Asuna had gotten on the bike wasn't as enjoyable as now. She wasn't a fan of it back then either. It was this heavy, noisy machine that wasn't very safe actually. But they had needed to hurry, they were already late. Asuna and Kirito had been at Kirito's home, for once studying outside of the VR world, just the two of them. But then they had remembered they had a meeting with their friends at Agil's coffee shop today.

Asuna had proposed to call a taxi, she was even going to pay for it. But Kirito was having none of this, instead saying that his bike would be faster. The girl had needed a few seconds before remembering which bike her boyfriend was talking about and her face immediately drained of all colour. Kirito had told her not to worry, he had never been in accident before. And he was going to give her a helmet.

That he did, giving her his own helmet, meaning he didn't have one on during the ride. Later on, he had to buy one for Asuna, too. It was kind of illegal to drive after a helmet after all. So he had specifically invited her to come with him to the shop and choose a helmet for herself. Of course, Kirito had insisted on paying, it was a present after all, 'for putting up with the noise and danger' he had joked. (Asuna had beed kind of disappointed she wouldn't use his helmet anymore but anyway.)

Back to the story at hand. They were late and about to ride on Kirito's motorbike. After helping Asuna put on the helmet, Kirito had sat on the big machine, starting it, revving the engine a few times. Asuna had protested again, weakly, knowing Kirito had made up his mind. Then, after he prompted her, the girl sat behind him carefully.

"Come closer or you're going to fall off." He had said. So Asuna had moved closer to him. "If you want hold onto me. Might be safer so you won't fall when we begin moving."

Here Asuna had made a mistake. She said she was fine, holding to the back of the bike, just above the tire. Kirito had shrugged and slightly moved forward. Yes, Asuna thought, this was alright. Then Kirito had suddenly began moving faster and she shrieked, jumping forward and circling her arms around his middle. He had laughed a little at her reaction, promising to not move so suddenly again.

Around ten minutes later (which felt more like ten hours to Asuna), Kirito stopped in front of Agil's coffee, sitting straight on the motorbike.

"We're here." He had said. "You can let go now or I might faint from oxygen deprivation."

"Very funny." She had commented before clumsily getting off the bike, nearly falling since she had lost the feeling in her legs. Kirito had steadied her, helping her remove the helmet.

Asuna didn't hear the end of Lisbeth's teasing that day, how she was all flushed and her hair was a mess. How could Asuna explain it was all the motorbike's fault.


	3. Samurai opponent

**A/N: Welp, the first surprise chapter...**

* * *

No one knew whose clever idea was it to make another version of this dreaded, awful game. But it existed and a lot of people played it. For some reason no one knew or understood.

Anyway, he decides not to think about it too much. The game was interesting, he had met a lot of friends there and he was good at it, those were the most important things. So everyday he would log in to grind some more, get stronger or help a few of the aforementioned friends.

See, that was the difference to the original game. You could log out whenever, the button was always there. This wasn't _Sword Art Online,_ this was _Sword Art Online: Integral Factor._

There was another difference too (well, a few but not all were this major) - the game wasn't finished, meaning not all hundred floors were there. Merely eleven floors were released (and quickly cleared). Since death in this game meant only transferring to the first floor, a lot more people had joined the clearing of the floors.

He was one of them, too. One of the clearing group. His whole guild was, the _Artificial Intelligence._ They were even quite well known amongst all the players.

But to be on the top meant a lot of hard work. And Arune was a hard worker. He even went to farm alone sometimes.

Like today. Since no one else was free (you know, real life was a thing, too) or they just wanted to lazy around in the moment, Arune was out on the fields of floor 10 alone. He couldn't exactly farm weapon proficiency experience points alone ( **A/N** : lol, wexp is so much shorter) so he was just farming col and normal experience points for his level. The materials the mobs dropped were a nice bonus, too.

Most of the other players were on the floor above since the monsters there dropped more points, col and more useful materials. But that also made the floor crowded and a solo player couldn't really find a nice spot. So floor 10 it was. And there was no one else there but him.

Or so he thought.

Arune was fighting the samurai type of monsters since there was more action there. He could parry their attacks, fight against them as if they were other players. This way he could train his reflexes more, too. Hopefully one day he could use them in a duel in a tournament against other players, too.

Arune could beat the samurai quite quickly with his skill records but that was not the point in the moment, he wanted to fight the old way, with just his blade and his own strength. His orange hair was getting in and out of his eyes as he moved around, his armour clanking underneath the latest clothes he had made from boss drops. His praised white fox scarf was as always around his neck, white as snow.

And so he was too focused on his opponent to really notice anything else around him. So focused, he didn't notice there was seine behind him when he jumped back to dodge an attack, pummelling the person to the ground and falling on top of them. A small 'oof' was heard but Arune had no time to see who he had fallen on as the samurai was attacking again.

The boy quickly jumped, dodging the attack again. Unfortunately the person he had fallen on didn't manage to dodge and got pierced by the katana, giving a small yell.

"No!" Arune yelled and just as the samurai was getting ready to stab again, the boy hit his katana with his sword, making it fly out of the samurai's hands and stab the ground a few meters behind him. There was no point in fighting a weapon-less opponent so Arune quickly finished him off with his skill records.

Turning around, he materialised a healing potion, ready to give it to the other player as an apology. Only there was no one there.

"Hello? Anyone there?" He yelled. Maybe the person had ran off to somewhere safer. "I'll give you a healing potion! The samurai is gone."

There was no answer. Arune waited a few seconds before yelling 'hello' again. But obviously whoever was there a minute ago, was there no longer.

Looking down, Arune huffed. He felt bad now. What if the person hadn't had many hit points and that hit had 'killed' them? You know, sometimes teleporting around could be a waste of time, too.

Then he noticed it. Something red was on the ground. It wasn't blood, there was no such thing in the game, no. It was an item. Arune quickly picked it up before it shattered. It was an accessory for hair, he had seen quite a few girls wear those. Unfortunately, when tapping on it, he couldn't see the name of the owner.

Someone wrote in the guild chat. They were making a party for the new event, Chaos Bosses. Arune wanted to clear it and get some new clothes from it, new avatar. So, not really registering what he was doing, he put the accessory in his inventory before quickly running to the teleport to join his friends.


	4. Fighting together

Kirito was a solo player, everyone knew this. He wasn't much into joining guilds or parties. But that eventually changed. Thanks to Asuna and all the other friends he had gotten during those two years.

Now, while playing Alfheim, or clearing Aincrad for the second time, even in Gun Gale Online Kirito preferred having his friends around. Games were meant to be fun so that's how he tried to play them.

But, on rare occasions, he preferred playing only with one another person. Just the two of them.

That person was Asuna of course.

She always kept him in check so he wouldn't go overboard with the fighting. She always brought yummy food (since her cooking skill was again maxed out). She made the whole process of playing the game much more fun and special.

"Kirito-kun, are you daydreaming again?" Came the voice of the girl he was thinking about. He shook his head, better enjoy the time he had with her than lose it.

"Yes, just thinking." Kirito smiled. "This quest is a bit boring anyway."

That earned him a slight hit on the arm from Asuna. He rubbed it while quickly apologizing.

"Humph! If you don't want to be here, just say so." The girl whipped her head to the other side, her hair flying around her face.

"No, no. I just meant it's moving a bit slow. We have to actually stalk a mob after all... And the award is not that good." The last sentence was said quieter than the rest but Asuna still heard it as she was right next to Kirito. That earned the boy another hit. With this rate he wouldn't be able to finish the quest due to low health.

"I didn't drag you here, you proposed to come with me." Kirito had to agree with her. "Besides, the award is very rare. Yes, it is not for a weapon like you would prefer. But it's still nice." Here Asuna blushed a bit, making Kirito look confused at her.

"What is it for? The award, I mean."

"Shush, the mob is coming!" Asuna pushed Kirito down and then lowered her head too so the bush in front of them hid them. The quest had said they had to attack at a specific moment or the award won't be dropped. Kirito sighed but still followed his wife's orders.

No matter what he said and how much he complained, it was actually fun. He liked helping Asuna like that. She hardly ever asked for help so he always tried to join her on such quests.

A bit more stalking and one short fight later (both of them were quite strong, what with Excalibur and Mother's Rosario), the quest was finished. The couple decided to walk for a bit before flying up to the floating castle and then to their house. There was no where to hurry for after all.

"So? What is the drop for?" Kirito decided to try his luck again.

"For clothes." Asuna murmured, blushing again.

"Huh? Don't you have clothes?" The boy was confused again.

Asuna frowned at him before answering. "These are limited. And not only for me. There's enough to make you a costume, too."

"Eh? Why for me too?"

"It's a matching set. That's the quest about, matching set of clothes for partners." Asuna whispered this, as if nervous that Kirito wouldn't like the idea.

"Oh." Was all he could say at first. Then Kirito grinned, reaching for Asuna's hand. "Do you think you could make something for Yui, too then?"

Asuna immediately looked up, grinning and eyes shining happily. "I'll try." She nodded.

Soon they had to fly up since they couldn't exactly walk to the flying castle above them. Back in their house, Yui was preparing lunch. Or trying. She had taken after Asuna and wanted to try and learn how to cook. Since she wasn't exactly a player, everyone wondered how that would work at first but eventually it turned out she could try learning some skills. The little girl had even gone fishing with Kirito a few times, too.

Maybe it was a part of her algorithm to understand human feelings, who knows...

Once Kirito and Asuna entered their house, Yui welcomed them cheerfully. Fifteen minutes later lunch was served (with a little of Asuna's help on some parts of the meal) and the family of three was seated around the table, making small talk, saying what they had done while the others weren't around.

A few days later, Asuna got Kirito and Yui in the house. Kirito had an idea what that was about but Yui didn't, this was going to be a surprise for her. Asuna materialized a few things from the shared inventory with Kirito, putting them on the bed so all three could see them.

"So you made them?" Kirito asked, picking up his newest costume.

"Yes, with a little help from Lis." Asuna walked forward, taking some of the clothes. "These are for you, Yui."

The little girl stared at the clothes. Then a smile began spreading across her face and she quickly took the clothes, manipulating her menu and putting them on.

"How do I look, mama, papa?"

"Very cute, Yui-chan." Asuna said while Kirito patted the girl on the head. Then they too put their clothes on.

They looked really good. Kirito had to admit he liked the clothes, Asuna knew his likes and style and had tried her best to follow them. And she looked really beautiful, too.

Yes, he would always go do quests with Asuna, no matter how boring they were. It was always worth it.


	5. Misplaced prank

This had been a problem even in old Aincrad, Asuna had noticed. Kirito was quite the airhead sometimes, not remembering things, not listening or plainly not paying attention to things. Of course, he didn't do it on purpose (most of the time). And while Asuna found it funny, it could also be infuriating sometimes.

Kirito would forget where he put this or that, confusing both himself and Asuna. Or he would forget to bring the dishes to the sink or wash them. Once he even forgot he had to go fishing in order to catch something for dinner, resulting in them searching for an open shop on the market street well after closing time.

Kirito always apologized afterwards, smiling that boyish smile of his. Asuna could never really get or stay angry at him.

"I wish there was an equivalent of the sticky notes here." Kirito whined one night.

The two of them had cleared after dinner and after searching for one cup of tea for nearly one hour. Their friends had been over for afternoon breakfast earlier and they had some tea. Kirito had walked somewhere with his cup and left it who knows where. Eventually they found it but it took them almost an hour.

"Or maybe a system to show you where an item is." Asuna proposed.

"Yes, or that..." Kirito plopped down on his rocking chair.

"Maybe you should just learn to remember."

"I do, I remember." Asuna lifted and eyebrow at that. "Most of the time... Quite often? Sometimes." Asuna nodded, laughing a little.

"Pay attention, listen and remember, Kirito-kun."

Asuna turned around, walking to the kitchen to finish a few other chores before they both had to log off for the day. And while she was doing said chores, she got an idea.

On the next day, she logged in the game just a few minutes earlier than Kirito. But that was more than enough for what she had to do. But then Kirito was late. Asuna waited in their house for him but the boy was nowhere to be seen for another half an hour. He was online, even messaged Asuna that he would be late. Didn't say why though.

Had he figured out her plan? Why she was wondering this, Kirito burst in from the front door, startling the girl.

"Have you seen Yui? Ican't find her anywhere." Okay, now Asuna was even more startled and worried.

"What? How so? Where did she go?" As she was asking these questions, Asuna had equipped her rapier and was ready to go out and search for the little girl herself.

"I have no idea. When I logged in, I called her but she didn't come, didn't even answer my message." Kirito answered, panick evident in his voice.

"She couldn't have gone far, right? She can;t fly that fast." Asuna said thoughtfully.

"But both Aincrad and Alfheim are quite big, it would take quite sometime to search them all."

"Let's call the others too, Lis, Klein, everyone." Asuna proposed.

"Call them, I'll continue searching. It might be a good idea for you to stay here, too. She might come back by herself." Before the girl could protest, Kirito was out of the door again.

The thought that this could be a trick of Yui's and Kirito's breifly passed through her mind but Asuna was too worried to actually think about it. And Kirito had looked way to panicked. He was hardly ever panicked. This was serious.

Soon enough their friends were online, everybody choosing a region and searching. Asuna still stayed at the house on the 22nd floor, waiting for the girl to come home.

The hours passed, the sun was moving through the sky. Then, almost at sundown Yui opened the door to the house. Asuna jumped from the couch, running towards the girl, hugging her tightly.

"Where were you? We're all worried." She asked, her voice higher than normal.

"Don't worry, mama. I went to get papa's chair." The girl answered, seemingly quite happy with herself.

"Get it?" Asuna looked behind the girl. And sure enough Kirito's rocking chair was just outside the door frame. "Oh, Yui."

The girl, not really understanding what was happening, hugged Asuna back just as tightly. A few seconds later the older girl pulled away, messaging the search parties to tell them Yui was back.

Once everyone was back, the questions came. Everyone wanted to know what had happened. Meanwhile, Asuna wanted to run away.

"Mama brought papa's chair out to one of the caves in Alfheim. I went to retrieve it." Yui explained simply. And everyone's eyes were on Asuna.

"Why?" Kirito asked, sitting in said chair.

"I was just trying to prank you. Got the idea last night after talking about remembering where you put stuff." The girl explained quietly, her face reddening more with every second.

Their friends had no idea what she was talking about so they just laughed it off with a few teasing remarks. Kirito actually laughed a bit, too.

"Didn't think Yui would actually go retrieve the chair?" He asked Asuna later when they were alone.

"I should've probably warned her. She is still not great with this sort of thing"

Kirito smiled, opening his arms. Asuna just walked closer, hugging him.

"It's all fine now. I think your prank backfired though." He laughed.

"Yes, Yui pranked us all." Asuna finally smiled, too.

"Maybe she actually knew what was going on. Maybe she did it to prank you." Kirito shrugged.

They would never know, only guess.


	6. Accusations and fights

Arune quickly forgot about what had happened a few days ago while he was farming alone. He had stuff to do both in the game and in real life so that kept his mind occupied.

Until one day, almost a week after the incident, he was reminded of it. He was at a merchant's shop, selling some of the items he had farmed when he saw the red accessory in his inventory. Looking at it, Arune again wondered who that girl had been.

After checking the time and deciding it was too late for farming but too early to log out, the boy decided to go back to the tenth floor and look around for more clues. Who knows, he might even meet the girl again.

Arune had heard a lot of strange stories about this game. About ghosts and disappearing log out buttons, just as in the original game. But they were only that, stories, rumors no one really believed. The thought that the girl he had met was a ghost had passed through his mind. After all, he hadn't seen her again, she hadn't come looking for her accessory.

And so, the boy went back to the tenth floor, to the exact same spot he had farmed at on that day. Again, no one seemed to be around, he was all alone.

Looking around, Arune crouched down, beginning to look through the grass, even though items disappeared after time if not picked up. He just had this feeling he could find something.

Five minutes later he sighed, giving up and straightening on his legs. Turning around, he came face to face with a girl.

It took them both just a second before they screamed, jumping away from each other, Arune taking out his sword while the girl fell down and curled up, hiding behind her knees.

"A ghost!" The boy whispered.

"A murdered..." The girl half yelled with trembling voice.

"A murdered?" Arune asked confused, moving his head to one side.

"You!" The girl yelled.

"Me?" He got even more confused.

"Yes!" Now she got up, moving her right hand to her back, taking our a dagger.

"Eh... What?" Arune was really confused now. And so far their conversation wasn't going well which wasn't really helping, what with them saying only one word.

But it seemed like the conversation was over since the girl ran towards him, the dagger in her right hand lighting up from the skill she was about to use.

"Wait!" Arune yelled, jumping to the side and barely dodgin the hit in his surprise. But while he was turning around, he saw the girl charging at him again. "No! Waaaiiit!"

He couldn't help it, moving his sword and parrying the hit, making the dagger fly out of the girl's hand. It wasn't that hard of a hit, he thought. After all he didn't want to hurt her. She still dropped her weapon though. Maybe she wasn't that used to fighting.

Before he could ask or say anything though, the girl had ran in the opposite direction, this time away from him. Eh... What? She was going to just run away after attacking him?

"Oi! Come back here!" Yes, she would totally listen. Arune shook his head, running after her, getting her dagger from where it had fallen. "You forgot your dagger."

She only turned her head for a second, seeing he was chasing her and running forward even faster. Her eyes were filled with fear for some reason.

"Oh come on! Why would I want to kill you? I just met you." Arune said quietly, too tired to yell. Then he remembered something. The red accessory for hair. Girls wore those. Arune decided to chance it. "I have your accessory. This red thing for your hair." He yelled.

The girl finally slowed down and eventually stopped, not turning around. Arune stopped a few meters behind her, not saying anything more, waiting for her to do or say something. And truth be told, he was a bit scared of her. Who knew if she was about to attack him again?

"First you attack me and steal my accessory, then you chase me." She said quietly. "Leave me alone."

"I-I didn't attack you." Arune defended himself. Then he thought a bit. "Wait. It's your fault! What we're you doing behind me?"

"What? Don't accuse me!"

"Yes, I will. I was fighting and dodging hits, then you appeared behind me and messed up my rhythm."

"No, you..." She turned around, ready to argue more, a finger already pointing to the boy accusingly. But then her open mouth shut, her body becoming rigid again. She moved her eyes from him to the ground, seemingly not daring to look at him.

Arune sighed yet again. Exhaling slowly, he materialised an item from his inventory, handing both the item and the dagger to the girl.

"Truce?" He asked. "I promise, I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl sighed, finally looking the boy in the eyes. He noticed it though.

He noticed how the girl's eyes skimmed over his scar.


	7. Yet another year

Special occasions or gatherings weren't his thing. Socialising in general wasn't one of his favourite things to say the least.

Basically, even in real life, Kirito preferred going around solo, being left alone. But by no means was he a loner or some creep who hid in his room. No, his girlfriend wouldn't let him stay in.

Especially not on his birthday.

"I get that you want to celebrate, Asuna. But why come here? And more importantly, why so early?" Kirito asked, his eyes half-open as he held the front door for his girlfriend to enter.

"You know we can't really celebrate at my home. My mother won't be very happy about it." Asuna sighed but remering why she was here, quickly perked up again. "And I'm here so early in the morning because we have a lot of things to do today."

Asuna immediately went to the kitchen, Kirito finally noticing the supermarket bags in her hands. Now he was awake. That meant she was going to cool something. And Kirito loved Asuna's cooking.

" I'll go fix myself up then. And get dressed, better than staying in pajamas. Be right back." And the black-haired boy ran up the stairs with so much energy and such a big smile, you would think it was Christmas and he was about to open presents.

Well, he was going to open presents today, being his birthday and all. Asuna shool her head with a little smile getting to work.

"What's with all the ruckus Kazuto is making?" A more awake than her brother Sugu entered the kitchen.

"It's his birthday today. And I'm making breakfast." Asuna answered.

"Oh, yes, it is. And you are." Sugu yawned. Maybe she wasn't that much more awake. "Can I join you on this breakfast or do you two want to be alone?"

Asuna blushed a bit before answering. "It's fine, you can eat with us. I have plans for today so soon after Kirito and I will go out. But you're invited to come to Agil's bar later, everybody is going to be there." Asuna smiled at Sugu.

"Alright. I will be there." The shorter girl nodded just as her brother came down the stairs, this time his hair not so ruffled, his face washed and with proper (black) clothes on.

"Where there?" He asked.

"Places." Sugu shrugged. "Happy Birthday, oni-chan." The two siblings hugged and talked for a bit while Asuna finished and served breakfast.

After a few compliments about the food, Asuna and Kirito were out of the house. The girl almost skipping from happiness and giddiness, the boy watching her and smiling to himself.

"So? Where to now?" He asked after a few minutes of walking.

"I thought we could go around a few places you might like. For example a few shops for games and computers. Then maybe go to the amusement park for a bit. They have a few games and rides there that I think you might like, too."

That was Asuna's idea alright. Jumping from one thing to the other. Looked a bit random but still, everything was according to Kirito's likes.

The shops were interesting, Kirito got all excited (again like a kid on Christmas) about some new games. When they were looking at parts for computers, the hype was even more. Asuna barely understood what her boyfriend was talking about but it was still fun for her to listen to him. Kirito was enjoying his time, that was what mattered.

Lunch time and then came the amusement park. This was more of Asuna's territory but Kirito could manage it, too. They went on the bumper cars, Kirito played one shooting game, Asuna tried her luck in some baseball-like game. Time passed quickly but it was fun, albeit a bit unusual for them.

They both got tired, Kirito and Asuna. But the girl insisted there was one more place they had to visit. Kirito had an idea where that was.

Agil's bar.

Everyone was there, even Sugu and Sinon. It kind of reminded Kirito of when they had first gotten together there, the first time after escaping Aincrad. Everyone was there. Everyone he treasured, counted as a friend or even more.

He turned to Asuna, thanking her for everything, not only for today but for so much more. Hugging her, he vagualy heard everyone else either cheering or complaining. But what was most important was that Asuna was hugging him back, that was all that mattered.

Yet another year they had spent together, they had fought through together, they had survived together.


	8. Famous at school

The school the government had made for the SAO survivors wasn't that bad. A lot of people thought it was put together in the last minute but it was actually quite thought out. The students could choose bonus classes, do projects, there were even field trips. The only problem was, friend groups and guild members were not always on the same class. People had to make new friends or run to the next room in every break to talk with their old friends.

That was the problem and with Kirito and Asuna's group of friends. They were all thrown around the classes, some even in different years. It was no fun to waste three minutes of every break just to find a friend. Luckily, the friends had quickly thought of a place where to meet up. But they also didn't have a problem with making new friends either. After all, _some_ of them were quite famous and everyone wanted to talk with them.

Actually, both Kirito and Asuna had problems with how many people wanted to talk with them, meet them or even thank them. The boy was surrounded by players wanting tips and lessons from him almost every break while Asuna even had a small fanclub ('just like in Aincrad' she thought with an eyeroll). With time it got better but in the beginning it was getting too much at times.

"Asuna, will you party with me some time?"

"No, come clear the labyrinth with me!"

"Stay away from my boyfriend!"

The girl sighed, being surrounded in the middle of the room again. How did she get so popular anyway? (And what was this about a boyfriend? Didn't they know she had one of her own?)

"Um, excuse me..." Asuna tried to say. "I have to be somewhere..." But her words were lost in the mayhem that was around her. She sighed again.

"Oi! Let her breath!" Came Lis' voice from somewhere behind the wall of people. "Can't you see you're stressing her? Big fans you guys are..."

Everyone was suddenly quiet, the sea of people moving to the side as Lis passed, followed closely by Silica.

"Thanks, guys." Asuna breathed out as she was pulled by the hand and led out of the room.

"You should learn how to stand up to them." Lis said.

"Even I do. They won't leave me alone because of Pina." Silica added.

Asuna nodded, she had to do this too eventually.

The next day was as good as any since she found herself in the same position. Surrounded by students, unfamiliar faces, asking this and that of her. How did Kirito manage this? Why couldn't she, considering she was the vice leader of the strongest game in SAO? Well, this was about to end.

"Enough!" She said sternly and surprisingly the room got quiet. "I need to go somewhere. May I please pass?" And the people parted, watching her surprised. Asuna got up, her head held high, and began walking. Until someone yelled.

"This is it! The KoB vice leader!" And the mayhem began anew. Looks like this attitude didn't help either. Asuna got angry, being this close to actually swing the notebook in her hand as if it was her trusty rapier. Then someone else yelled, making Asuna widen her eyes, searching for the source.

"If you leave her alone, I'll party with all of you and show you a few moves."

Everyone froze. Then all the boys jumped up, yelling and running towards the room's door when a boy dressed in all black under his school uniform jacket stood. On the other side, the girls got in groups, pointing at him and whispering, blushing and giving him small smiles. But the boy had eyes only for one girl in the room. The one that was staying rooted to her spot, watching him.

Finally Asuna moved her legs and walked closer to Kirito, giving him a questioning look.

"Are you sure about that? It's a big promise." She whispered. But instead Kirito grabbed her hand and began running down the hall, escaping from their fans. The two of them didn't stop until they reached the roof of the school, breathing in the cold air.

"They won't be able to repeat the moves anyway." He said after a few moments, making Asuna laugh a bit. Yes, this was probably true.

"Thank you." The girl said quietly. "But I really need to learn how to deal with this. I've no idea how you do it."

"Why, don't you want me to be the knight in black armor?" Kirito joked.

"I can't have you running around the whole school because of me. Although the idea sounds nice."

"Does it now?" The boy laughed. "I escape easy because our classroom is on the first floor. And I sit next to a window."

Asuna rolled her eyes. "How haven't they kicked you out yet?"

"Well, my grades are pretty good. And I'm a hero. Can't kick out the hero." Kirito said smugly, making Asuna slap his shoulder lightly.

"Well, my hero. Thank you for saving me today." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Gross! Guys, keep your PDA away from me." Lis complained, making the couple blush and look away. A moment later they were surrounded by their friends, sitting down to have lunch together.


	9. Training and running

"Anything interesting on my face?" Arune asked, his voice on edge. The girl in front of him widen her eyes.

"Um... no."

"Really?"

"Your eyes are... nice." She mumbled after a moment of silence.

"Thanks." He scoffed.

"No, really. I like purple." She obviously saw his dubious look as she stammered and continued digging herself in. "Your avatar is nice... Um... the hair, too. Orange... kind of like flames."

Arune looked up to his orange fringe before rolling his eyes. Fire was not this shade of orange, his hair was more like the fruit. Then he walked forward, picking up the girl's hand and putting her dagger and hair accessory in it.

"It's not all customized. You know there's the option to look like yourself." He said quietly before turning to the Teleport.

And so, this time he disappeared on the girl, teleporting to the Market street to kill a few bosses from the Quest Board. Knowing their patterns and fighting them automatically helped the boy shut his mind off, not thinking about anything. And most of the bosses couldn't hurt him anyway.

Days passed before his path crossed with this same girl yet again. At least so he thought.

Arune was farming again. And again alone. This time on the eleventh floor though, he had a few left quests there. Farming mobs, the usual. He was on the other side of the lake when someone else came from the Teleport. The floor was deserted because of the new Christmas event in the Teleport Plaza on the first floor. So spotting a new person on the floor was easy. Fighting the mermaid like creature in front of him though, Arune didn't pay much attention to them.

And then got hit with the spear weapon of the creature as someone surprised him, making him fall in the lake and get wet from head to toe.

"Sorry." Came the voice again.

"Don't 'hey' me in the middle of a battle!" Arune growled angrily at the intruder, not even looking at them as he had to finish off the monster which was still attacking him. He heard the steps behind him move further away, giving him space. Two hits later and the mob was down, breaking into shards of light.

"You shouldn't be farming alone, you know." The voice said as Arune was putting his sword back in its scabbard. "There are people after you."

The boy turned around, facing that same girl. He was immediately annoyed. If she was here again only to accuse him and yell at him...

"I can see that. You."

"No, not me."

"Then why are you everywhere I go?"

"It's not everywhere..." Her eyes widened. "I don't follow you around or anything..."

Arune lifted an eyebrow. That totally didn't sound suspicious at all. Naah, no way.

"So who is after me?" He asked.

"I don't know." The girl shrugged. Helpful.

Arune turned in the other direction, searching for another monster to fight. Enough wasting time.

"You have a rare item, don't you?" The boy stopped walking. "They are after it."

"And how do you know?" He asked.

"I..." She got quiet, not answering and just looking to the ground.

"You...?" Arune prompted her.

"I just now. A... A friend of mine is with them."

"Nice friends you have then." The girl still wouldn't look at him. "So why are you warning me then?"

And she got quiet again. Of course. Arune rolled his eyes.

"You know my guild mates can't always be with me. I can't lazy around." He said.

"Um... Let's go do the Christmas event on the first floor." The girl proposed.

"So I would do the whole work. And you clear it for free. Why should I help you?" Arune couldn't believe what this girl was saying.

"No. I can heal you. And help with the switching. I'll help." She quickly opened her menu and send him an invitation for a party. "At least you won't be alone."

Arune got her invite and finally saw her name. Koharu. He'd never heard of her before. But she obviously knew him quite well. Deciding he could ask her some more questions (and actually clear a bit of the event), the boy joined her party. Koharu started walking towards the Teleport and Arune followed.

It turned out she had a lot of healing potions. And knew how to use them without wasting them. Her switching though... Could use some more work.

"Why do you walk so freely on the higher floors? Can you even fight?" Arune asked between runs.

"I can fight. Just need more practice I suppose."

Arune decided he could farm a bit of weapon experience points while the girl could practice. On the lower floors. "Want to go somewhere on the lower floors? I can teach you a bit. At least how to dodge, you need that."

Koharu looked at him confused but then nodded and so they teleported again. Arune chose a nice spot and quickly explained about patterns and moves. The girl knew some of the stuff he said, she knew her theory. She just needed to use said theory.

"It's not that hard." The girl commented after a few minutes. "If you know the pattern and all."

"Your stats seem good though. You have the power, just not the skill. In time, you'll get them, too." Arune laughed. Then he wondered something. "How come you have that much power and these good weapon and armor but don't really know how to fight?"

"My friend gave the items to me. Didn't need them anymore."

"Yeah, it's nice when friends help you. Ask him to train you too though." Arune said.

A few moments later, as the boy was cutting the weak mobs left and right, the girl beside him stopped moving, seemingly reading her messages.

"You have to go!" Her voice was urgent now.

"Why?"

"They are trying to attack you again. Log off!" Koharu looked so scared, for a moment Arune thought this all might actually be serious.

"It's just a game. Besides' I could probably take them on." He shrugged, cutting two more monsters.

"No! Go!" She said quickly, pushing him towards the Teleport. But then it began shining, someone was coming through it. So the girl began pulling him away from there. "Go through the labyrinth, go to the next floor and teleport somewhere else. Then log off."

"What? Why?" Then he remembered what she said. "Wait. Again? They tried before? Who are they?"

Koharu ignored his questions, pulling him after herself. Arune had to admit, she had quite the high strength stat to be able to pull him like that. Once near the labyrinth's entrance she pushed him through it, looked at him with wide eyes and began running back to the Teleport. A second later a message that the party was disbanded appeared in front of Arune.

Not understanding anything and a bit worried about the girl, the boy decided to humor her and do what she said. He would ask her later, Arune was sure she was going to find him again.


	10. Trying meals

In time, both in the real world and the world of SAO and ALO, Kirito and Asuna had created their routine.

If they were to dive in the virtual world, they'd plan. Did they want to farm something, clear a quest, explore a new place in the map? Or maybe just rest in their house or meet with their friends. Depending on this, Asuna would prepare their food and items or warm up the house, cook a meal. Kirito would check their weapons, go fishing or help clean and set the table with Yui.

If they wanted to meet in the real life, the couple too had their routine. Asuna would prepare food, Kirito would drive to her home or the place they would meet and then take the chauffeur's role. They were so comfortable with each other, there was no need to tell the other what to do, they just knew.

Hardly anything could break their routines or mess them up. The one thing that was an exception was when Kirito got some weird ideas. Like now.

"I'll cook today." The Spriggan said as he appeared in the house on the 22nd floor of Aincrad.

"Are you sure you want to, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked after a short moment of silence due to her surprise. "Your skills are not that high."

"It's a simple thing, don't worry. It's a recipe I found online. Did you know there's a site with recipes for this game?" He was so excited for some reason, Asuna couldn't say no.

The routine changed with Kirito cooking today. And Yui joined in, too, helping the boy. So the blue-haired undine decided to leave them to it and begin working on her school work. Hopefully, the other two wouldn't burn down the house.

"So what's the recipe, Papa?" Yui asked excitedly as she watched Kirito get stuff out of the refrigerator.

"We're going to fry some meat. But not just any meat. Toad meat!" The boy grinned. "Just don't tell your Mama, she didn't like it the last time I proposed it." He rubbed his neck, looking worriedly to the living room.

"So we're going to make her try it?" Yui asked again.

"Yes. And after she likes it, we're going to tell her what it is. So we better make this meal really good." Kirito said seriously and the younger girl nodded. "We're going to make a bit of a change in our menu."

The two got to work, Kirito cutting and chopping the ingredients, Yui mixing and stirring them as he told her. Soon enough, there was a pot on the stove and a pan in the oven.

"Let's go see what Asuna is doing. The meal needs time to get ready." Kirito and Yui went into the living room where Asuna was still studying. Deciding not to disturb her, the two cooks began playing a game of chess.

"Don't you have homework, too, Papa?" Yui asked quietly.

Kirito looked worriedly to his girlfriend who had also looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "Heh, um..." He rubbed his neck. "It's not that much, I'll do it later." Asuna rolled her eyes but still let a small smile slip on her lips. Yui just nodded, not noticing the interactions.

Everyone went back to their activities, the time slowly passing, the sun slowly setting outside their house's windows.

"Hey, master chefs." Asuna suddenly called out. Kirito and Yui looked at her, their fifth game of chess on pause. "Can't you smell something burning?" She smirked.

There was a moment of silence, no one moving. Then Kirito jumped up like he himself was on fire, running towards the kitchen.

"No, no, no!" He yelled. Yui looked at Asuna with wide eyes before scurrying after the black-haired boy. Moments later there was a big cloud of black smoke, coming out of the kitchen door, the two people who had entered the room coughing.

"Some routines are better left unchanged." Asuna said to herself as she got up to open a window. Then, walking to the kitchen, she ushered the other guilty looking two out, preparing to make dinner by herself.

Kirito didn't give up though. He was going to make Asuna try this meal somehow.

He lost three games of chess to Yui in the end.


	11. Old game

They didn't play games all the time, Kirito, Asuna and the gang. But that's what they did most of the time since it was even easier and made things not so boring. You could do basically anything in ALO, from studying to reading the news, to accessing things and places in the real world. And then, with the Augma, you could access the virtual world while you were in the real one. Sure, it looked funny to people who didn't use it - just some kids waving around their hands, but it actually was quite the useful tool. More and more people were using it, no matter how much troubles it had created at first. Just like with the NerveGear and the AmuSphere.

Seriously, people should have learned to expect it by now.

But sometimes all this technology could get a bit too much, even for kids who basically grew up with it. So they would turn these gadgets off and do something the simple way.

"I'm bored." Lis complained.

"So am I..." Kirito sighed, plopping backwards on Asuna's bed.

The two of them, Silica, Klein and Asuna had one such break from technology. At Asuna's home, the house which basically had technology in the air. But it was the biggest house and the girl had invited her friends over. She hardly ever brought anyone home and the others were actually curious about where she lived.

But yes, after the home tour was over and the small talk ended, the friends had nothing to do. Asuna even wondered if it would be rude to open the book she was reading and finish a chapter or two.

"Let's play a game." Came Klein's excited voice after a moment.

"But didn't we agree not to use technology?" Kirito asked lazily.

"No, not ALO. An old game." Klein smirked. "Or are you youngsters afraid I will beat you in a game from my childhood?"

Kirito and Lisbeth immediately took to the challenge, that was to be expected. Asuna and Silica just wondered what the oldest in the group was talking about.

"Do you know the game Ludo?" Klein asked, making his voice sound lower, as if he was telling a ghost story.

"Oh, I know this one!" Asuna exclaimed, her eyes shinning excitedly. "We even have a box somewhere here. Wait a minute." And she ran out of her room to go find the item, leaving everyone to watch after her and wonder what this game was.

Klein smirked. "But don't be angry if you lose, kids."

More than a minute later, Asuna finally came back with a small rectangular box in her hands.

"This is it." She said as she practically jumped to the floor, opening the box and taking some small items out. The other people in the room looked to one another before joining her.

"Oh, it's a board game!" Silica said excitedly. "I haven't played one recently."

"But what are the rules?" Lis asked. Kirito was ready to pull his phone out and check but Klein and Asuna looked to each other before explaining quickly.

"You chose a colour and take four pieces."

"Then, when you throw a six on the dice, you can get one out on the path and move it to your colour's base."

"But if someone step's on you, you have to get the piece back in your yard."

"And sometimes you have to wait for the right number on the dice."

Lis, Silica and Kirito didn't understand too much of the rules but their friends were excited and they didn't want to ruin the fun.

And then, a problem arose.

"Aren't there only four colours though? There's five of us." Silica noticed.

"Oh." Asuna said and her and Klein got quiet. "Yes, there's five of us."

"Hehe, then we'll be a team." Lis jumped up and pushed Kirito aside, sitting close to Asuna. "This way I'll be on the winning team, you guys play alone."

Kirito was about to protest but then stopped, deciding it wasn't worth it. You couldn't change Rika's mind when she thought of something.

"Alright then." And so the game began.

Kirito chose blue (since it was closest to black), Asuna and Liz red, Silica green and only the yellow colour was left for Klein.

"Ugh, never be a gentleman. You get the brightest colour." He complained.

The game began. Asuna and Lis were first, then Kirito, then Klein, then Silica. On the third spin, Kirito finally got a six, getting one of his pieces out. Soon enough Asuna and Silica followed. Klein complained again.

But once he finally got a piece out, he trampled both Kirito and Silica. Only Asuna and Lis managed to run run away and hide in their base (thanks to Lis' luck of course, good thing she was on Asuna's team). Silica quickly got a new piece out and began chasing Klein. Instead of running, the man decided to get another piece in game and also chaise Silica. But by then Kirito had gotten to him.

And just like that, Klein lost another two pieces. But Asuna got another piece in game and so Kirito lost his, pouting and saying Asuna shouldn't attack him. The girl had to defend herself, saying the dice decided where she went, not herself. Meanwhile, quietly, Silica got another piece in game and got her first one in her base.

Klein finally got another piece in game, praying every time before throwing the dice. Asuna got her second in her base, Kirito got his first and got a new one out.

The game was getting more and more serious. People got quiet, only watching the table, not even glancing at the other players. The only sounds that could be heard were huffing when a piece was stepped on or a sigh of relief when a piece entered the base.

Kirito quickly fell behind, saying this was not his type of game. There were no swords in it. Silica too fell behind, not getting the game and not understand what was going on at times. The battle was suddenly between Klein and Asuna (and Lis).

Klein had three pieces in the base, Asuna only two. All their other pieces were on the path. The chase was on. Suddenly Lis' luck ran out and Klein began gaining on them. He hit one piece, then another. And then entered his base.

This was the end, Klein jumped up, he had won. He flipped the game's map in his happiness. Lis huffed, Asuna laughed with Kirito and Silica.

"Haha, told you I'm the best in this game!" Klein yelled.

"You never said such a thing..." Lis pouted.

"Let's play another game!" Klein was on fire.

"No, thanks." Lis got up, sitting on Asuna's bed.

The game was quickly put back in its box, the friends opting for a walk outside instead. It seemed like oldschool games weren't their thing. This night the friends had gotten online, meeting in Asuna's and Kirito's house as usual.

And Lis kicked Klein's butt with her mace.


	12. Trying to help

Arune got worried. He had no news of Koharu for five days. Not that she said she would contact him. Or that Arune was worried or anything. What did he care anyway?

But he _was_ worried. Not only for the girl but for himself, too. The boy didn't go farming alone as much, looked around more often, his hand was always on his weapon. In the end, he began farming only with his guild mates, doing the Christmas event or dungeons. If no one wanted to farm, the boy had nothing else to do but stay in the guild building or even log off and do something at home, in the real world.

Arune was so bored. He couldn't take it more, he wasn't going to hide all the time.

On the next day he found himself walking around every floor, searching. For Koharu or the people searching for him, he didn't know. The boy walked around, killing a mob here and there from time to time, stealthily looking around. He didn't find anything or anyone so Arune finally went back to the first floor after two hours of just walking around and people staring at him. The plan was to go back to the guild building, as usual lately.

Arune was walking through the streets when someone appeared out of nowhere and ran to the next dark alley, pulling the boy with himself.

"Hey, let..." The person put their hand over Arune's mouth, quickly silencing him. And still pulling him in directions he couldn't follow.

He was being kidnapped! Were those the people Koharu tried to warn him about? Arune moved his hand to his sword but the kidnapper noticed it, holding his hand with their free one. It was surprisingly soft for a strong fighter, for a red player.

"It's me!" Came a now familiar voice. "Stop struggling, people will notice us."

Koharu removed her hand from Arune's mouth and the boy looked at the girl, confused. He was always confused around her, he noticed.

"What are you doing?!" He whisper-yelled.

"I need to talk with you. But we can't be seen together." She explained, not meeting his eyes and instead looking up and down the street. "Follow me. Please."

Two more minutes of walking around small streets Arune had never in his life seen, Koharu finally walked through a door into some building, stopping and turning to look at the boy.

"We can talk here." She said.

Arune lifted an eyebrow, this was too much for him. "Why here? Why not out there?" Koharu went to shush him again but he raised his voice, making a step backwards. "Why so secretive, Koharu? What's going on?"

The girl also stepped back, looking sad. "It's complicated. You're in danger."

"So you keep saying. You're making me paranoid, I haven't played this game in a few days. Not like how I used to play it anyway." Arune huffed. "You have to tell me what's going on. For real."

Koharu sighed. She looked around the empty room again, as if making sure there was no one there. Then, she finally began talking.

"There is this group of people. I told you about them, they go after rare items. And if they are after you, you have one, too." Arune nodded, so far this was believable. "And... and this friend of mine I mentioned... He is... Um, with them, too."

"Why are you trying to save me then? Shouldn't you be helping your friend instead?" Arune asked.

"No. I don't want to. I've realized... I mean, their idea is wrong. This is just a game. There's no need to kill someone for an item." The boy's eyes widened. He had the feeling Koharu didn't mean 'kill' as kill in the game. It sounded more serious.

"Kill... How?" He asked again.

"They have their means. I'm sure you've heard of other similar cases." Koharu mumbled.

Both SAO and GGO had such famous stories, such tragedies, everyone knew about them. Both were different methods though. So how did they do it here and now? And why didn't anyone know about this or talk about it?

"We should tell someone!" Arune said. "They are murderers." He was about to go out of the building when Koharu grabbed his hand again. He had to admit, she was pretty strong.

"No!" The quiet unsure girl was suddenly gone. She was commanding. "No." She said more softly after noticing Arune's eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "You can't do that."

"And why? You'll stop me?" Arune asked. His hand was itching to reach for his sword. But Koharu was holding it, weaving her fingers through his.

"If I have to." She said quietly. But her eyes were serious. Arune found himself believing she would do it. She could do it.

He didn't know her. Yet he spent so much time with her. He fell into her trap, Arune realized. There was no friend. She was with them! With the killers...

The boy opened his mouth, inhaling air, ready to yell, to call for help. His minds was running wild, thinking of ways to try and open his menu, write in the chat or log off. Something. He had to do something.

Koharu was faster though. She took her mace and hit Arune on the back of his head swiftly. He couldn't do anything but fall down on his knees, just staring up at the girl. Koharu hadn't hit him with her full strength, just enough to activate the system and induce an 'unconscious' state. For once, Arune wasn't happy with how realistic this game was made.

"I'm trying to help you." Those words were the last thing he heard before the system finally kicked in and all Arune could see was black. At least you could listen to music in this state.


	13. Who got scared?

Surprisingly enough, Asuna wasn't one to get scared by horror movies. Kirito had checked a few times. If there were no ghosts in it, no movie could scare Asuna.

At first the boy thought that the small television at his home was just to weak to portray the scenes and effects to their full force. The small cinema at Asuna's home was nice (there was even a popcorn machine), the chairs were comfy, the screen was basically giant. But Asuna still didn't even blink.

So Kirito took it to the virtual world to try and scare her. You could open a big screen and play anything on it in ALO now. Which meant in Aincrad, too.

Asuna agreed to the plan of course, deciding to humor her boyfriend and his tries to scare her for whatever reason. Yui quickly decided to join them, too.

"Can I choose the movie?" She asked excitedly as Asuna prepared food and Kirito prepared the house. He lit fire in the fireplace, closed and locked doors and windows, turned off all lamps, got blankets and pillows on the sofa.

"Just be careful not to choose a too scary one and scare yourself, Yui." Asuna said calmly.

"But choose one that would scare your Mama!" Kirito yelled from the other room.

"Your plan won't succeed!" Asuna yelled back. Yui looked between the two, laughing a bit, before running to the leaving room and opening the menu with movies.

Five minutes later the movie was on, Yui and Kirito had taken their places on the sofa and Asuna was bringing the food from the kitchen. Once she got comfy too, Yui played the movie.

"I compared the movies' scores on famous sites and even checked what people have said about them. It seemed pretty scary to me." The little girl said as the opening credits were shown on the screen. Then she turned to Kirito. "Good luck, Papa."

Kirito patted the girl on the head and thanked her. And then the movie finally began.

It was a pretty weird one if you asked Asuna. Not scary, just weird. Yui didn't seem scared either. Zombies in a horror movie? Not that scary considering how many other movies and series with zombies were out there. At least Asuna thought that. But looking over Yui's head to the other end of the coach where Kirito sat, the girl was surprised to see him hugging a pillow, eyes wide on the screen.

He looked scared.

Asuna nudged Yui, nodding towards Kirito once the girl looked at her. Yui turned towards Kirito then, quickly understanding what was going on. He, on the other hand, still hadn't noticed the girls watching him instead of the movie.

"I thought the movie is not that scary, Mama." Yui whispered to Asuna.

"It doesn't seem that scary to me either." The older girl shrugged. "Maybe Kirito-kun is not very fond of zombies. Just how I am with ghosts."

"Oh." Yui got quiet for a moment, thinking. "So scary movies are difficult to chose. You have to know what the other is afraid of. But Papa is trying to scare you with something besides ghosts."

"Yes. Still don't know why." Asuna giggled. "I think he lost in his own game though." Yui nodded. If Kirito was more afraid than Asuna, he had lost.

"Should we stop the movie?" Yui asked. But Asuna shook her head, her eys shining with mischief.

"No, I've got an idea." She quietly got up and walked out of the room, Yui glancing at Kirito one last time before following.

Asuna walked towards the bedroom. Once in it, she began searching for random items in the drawers and getting other things from her inventory.

" What are you doing, Mama?" Yui asked, closing the door behind herself.

"We're going to scare Kirito-kun, Yui." Asuna smiled. "I'm wondering if we should make ourselves look like zombies or ghosts would be easier though."

"Ghosts. It would have bigger effect on him." Yui said thoughtfully. "Then he would be afraid of ghosts, too."

"You're one scary mastermind, Yui-chan." Asuna praised the girl before getting to work. Yui smiled happily before joining the older girl and helping her make their costumes.

They were simple costumes really, some cloth from the bed sheets. But Asuna wasn't going to stop there. Just like how some of the monsters in ALO and SAO were made more humanoid, she was going to make their ghost costumes more humanoid, too. She was going to add hands to them, zombie hands.

But then Yui got another idea - she would use her Pixie form. That would make it even scarier, she would actually fly high off the ground. Asuna agreed that ghosts didn't have legs, it would be better if she used her wings, too.

In a few minutes everything was set. Asuna had cut holes in her sheet and attached some old gloves to them, colouring them grey, more zombie like. She and Yui donned their costumes, a smaller one for the latter. So, just like that, two ghosts floated in the living room where Kirito was still engrossed in the movie, not suspecting a thing.

"Boo..." Asuna said quietly, prolonging the word. She had to surpress a giggle bubbling in her throat. She heard Yui's snicker next to her ear.

At first Kirito didn't show any reaction, maybe he thought the sound was from the movie for some reason. And then, Yui decided to float near his head.

"AAARGH!" Kirito screamed (with quite the high notes) and jumped off the coach and to the other side of the room.

But Asuna floated closer to him and Kirito's eyes widened even more. She raised her custom zombie arms for more effect. This was really fun.

Until Kirito opened his menu in a flash and equipped his black sword, immediately taking it out of its scabbard. He even swung it forward but Asuna managed to dodge it.

"No, Papa!" Yui yelled, floating between the couple.

"Kirito-kun, it's me." Asuna also said, taking off her costume. Yui too took hers off.

"What..." Kirito was confused, looked to the screen with the movie still going, then back to the girls in front of him. "Are you crazy? I could've hurt you." He sighed.

Yui transformed to her human form and hugged Kirito to calm him down. Asuna too joined in, apologising through her laughs. It took almost ten minutes to calm Kirito down and finally move back to the sofa and try to finish the movie. A few minutes later Asuna smirked and leaned over Yui to whisper in Kirito's ear.

"Who got scared in the end?"


	14. Celebrating together

Kirito wasn't that much of a romantic person but he tried when he had to or wanted to. For example fourteenth of February. That was an important day, a day most girls waited for with trepidation. Kirito knew that even if she didn't show it much, Asuna was excited, too. She behaved herself most of the time, having grown up with her strict mother. But around Kirito and their friends, she could let loose, be herself. Kirito knew that meant celebrating this holiday, too.

He decided to go a bit cliche, buying a bouquet and a plush teddy bear. Then, he went to surprise Asuna at her home. And (unfortunately) got a strange idea. Weird, creepy one. Maybe a bit romantic? He would try it though.

He circled around the house to where Asuna's room was. It was on the second floor, should be in his reach. He moved the bear to the hand that was holding the bouquet and looked down to search for a small rock. Finally he found one and straightened up and aimed at Asuna's window, throwing the rock. Of course, not too hard so as not to break the window and hurt Asuna.

On the fourth stone, the girl finally appeared at the window, still in her pajamas and very confused. She opened the window and looked down at Kirito, her eyes widening.

"Kirito-kun, what are you doing?" The girls asked, her voice higher than normal. She was flustered, fixing her appearance, pulling at her hair as she had just gotten out of bed.

"Surprising you." He said, rubbing her neck, suddenly also shy. He lifted the bouquet and teddy bear. "Happy Valentines day!" He blushed.

"Happy Valentines day, Kirito-kun." Asuna smiled gently. "Go to the front door, I'll let you in." And she disappeared.

Kirito walked back to the front door. In a few seconds he heard the sound of bare feet running on the tales inside and the door swung open. Asuna jumped at Kirito and hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek. Then she took the presents and moved aside to let the boy in the house.

"Thanks, Kirito-kun, but isn't it a bit early?" Asuna asked.

"Yeah, maybe a bit. But I thought you always wake up early." Kirito teased.

"It is Saturday today." Asuna was not amused.

"Don't worry, we're only lazying around today." Kirito said as they walked up the stairs.

"So you haven't planned anything?" Asuna quirked an eyebrow.

"Eh!" Kirito took a step back. "No, we will just do whatever you want?" The end of the sentence went a bit up, sounding more like a question.

"Saving yourself I see." It was Asuna's turn to joke and tease now. Kirito gave something between a laugh and a cough, blushing and rubbing his neck again.

"We could go to the cinema maybe." Kirito proposed. "Or the park, or out for a ride on the bike, go out of the city." He knew Asuna wouldn't go shopping on such a day so he didn't gave that as an idea. She would much prefer to go on a walk somewhere or see something new.

"A movie and a ride on the bike sound nice." Asuna said, walking into her room and directly turning towards her closet. "Just give me a few minutes to get ready."

While Asuna was out of the room, Kirito decided to help and fix the bed covers up a bit. Then he sat on her desk chair, spinning and looking around.

"Alright, I'm ready." Came Asuna's voice from the door and Kirito got up from the chair and walked outside after her. Once outside, Kirito gave Asuna her helmet and then got his on. Then, the boy drove them to a cinema in the center of the city.

After walking around the busy streets for a bit and window shopping at a few gaming and manga shops, the couple finally entered the cinema. Instead of following the river of couples to the romantic movies though, they went to a kids movie, something about a boy with a guitar and some skeleton. (in the end there were tears, every such movie had a sad moment)

Out on the streets again, there was a man selling balloons. He, of course, guilt tripped every guy in buying one. He got Kirito's attention, too, saying how beautiful his girlfriend was, how she would want a balloon. Asuna, again, wasn't impressed. While Kirito stood there confused, Asuna took her purse and gave the man the money for two balloons. The man, with a stunned expression, gave them to her and Asuna gave one to Kirito, keeping the other to herself.

"You're crazy, you know." Kirito shook his head as the two walked down the street.

"It's not fair for only the boys to give presents to the girls. A balloon is not much though. Maybe I can buy you something later?" Asuna asked.

"No need." Kirito hugged her. "Let's go for that ride with the motorbike."

They rode through the city for a bit before going out of it, riding along some smaller streets, only green around them. Green trees, green fields, small houses here and there. They stopped for a bit in one field, under a tree, taking a little break from all the business and the loud. Kirito decided to try and climb the tree. Asuna decided to have fun and film him.

"Don't you dare send this to Liz. I'll never hear the end of it." Kirito said as he pulled himself up on the lowest branch.

"Don't do anything embarrassing then." Asuna said, watching him through her phone's screen. "This is not ALO, you don't have your wings."

"Or strength." Kirito mumbled.

"Louder for the camera, Kirito-kun." He only scoffed. "Seriously, why climb the tree?"

"Don't cool guys do such stuff to impress the girls?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah, it'd be impressive if I manage to drive us back with the bike when you fall and break a bone or two."

"Thanks for believing in me."

Asuna smiled sweetly before answering. "This was believing in my rather than you." Kirito rolled his eyes, finally giving up and jumping down from the tree.

"What does it take to impress a girl like you, then?" He asked.

"Maybe swing a sword or two, save a the lives of a few thousand people, show that others can rely on you. Such simple stuff." Asuna half joked. Those were just a few of the things that made her fall for Kirito, the list was too long.

Kirito shook his head. "That's a tough list to complete." He said before walking closer to Asuna and kissing her. "I will try though, for you."

The two walked around for a bit longer before going back to the bike and then back to the city, their balloons surprisingly surviving the motor's fast speed. Kirito returned Asuna to her house just a few minutes before dinner time, then went home. Sugu looked weirdly at him and the balloon tied to his wrist.

It wasn't anything fancy but it was their way of celebrating on this day. They didn't need too much excitement anyway, they had already gotten more than enough thanks to SAO. The calm was more than welcomed. And spending it together out of the city like that was perfect.


	15. End their

When he finally 'woke up', Arune was tied, sitting down on the floor in that same building he had entered with Koharu. He could see her, too, sitting with her back to him, doing something on her menu. By the moves of her hand, it looked like she was writing to someone.

Arune didn't have time for this, it was dinner time soon in the real life. And what Koharu was doing was clearly a violation of the rules in the game, even her cursor had tinted a bit yellow. It was forbidden to keep players from logging off. Or ambush, attack and tie them. Basically what she had done to him. Arune had to think of something and get out of this mess. Then maybe report the girl and her friends.

Then maybe get rid of that ring he had found. It was around two weeks before his first encounter with Koharu. He had cleared a quest on the eleventh floor and suddenly, in between all the other rewards from it, there was a ring he had not seen or heard of before. He even searched for it online, trying to figure out if anyone knew anything about the item. No luck though, his search was in vain.

He had been too afraid to try and equip a random item just like that. After all, it could've been something hacked or a virus or who knows what. But in the end, he had seen no other option but to see what the ring did by trying it on himself. He had gone to a deserted part of the map one day, making sure no one was around, and had equipped the ring. And suddenly Arune had grown wings on his back.

His first flight wasn't big success but it felt awesome. But it was also wrong. There was no flying in SAO. Yes, there was in ALO, but not in SAO. This was unfair advantage. Or maybe they were going to introduce wings in SAO, too? After all this wasn't the original game, this was _Integral Factor_ , a remake. Maybe this ring was a hint for it. But didn't that mean more people would know and have this ring?

No, this all seemed wrong. So Arune put the ring in his inventory and never again used it.

But now it seemed that equipping it even once was a mistake. Since someone from Koharu's friends had seen him. And now he had some crazy players on his tail, he was caught by one of them.

Koharu finally closed her menu with a sigh. She sat back, propping herself on her hands behind her back.

"So when are your friends coming? Won't you at least untie me so I can try defending myself? Or are you that afraid?" Arune almost spat the words at the girl. Konaru jumped a little at his voice, then turned around to look at him.

"They don't know you're here. I hope." The last two words were whispered quietly to herself. "I told them you farm on the higher floors."

"So you can get the rare item for yourself?" Arune asked again.

"No!" Koharu yelled. "I'm trying to save you, you... Idiot!" Koharu got up and walked away. She was angry. Arune never thought she could get angry. She always seemed so nice, gentle, soft. And just in around an hour he understood she was actually quite strong and dangerous. That he didn't know her at all. Farming together for a bit with a stranger didn't mean anything, the stranger remained a stranger.

Koharu sighed and calmed down a bit, walking back towards Arune. "I didn't want to be a part of this, they blackmailed me." She said guiltily. "You saw I'm not a good fighter. They found me on the second floor, gave me gear and a mission. I couldn't say no."

"Why?" Arune decided to win time till he thought of something. Making the girl talk was going to win him time. For now.

"It is true I know one of the guys in their guild. He lives close to my home so we've met each other, talked. In real life. Then, I mentioned this game and he said he plays it, too. Boasted how he is in a strong guild. I decided to find him in the game and maybe he could help me a bit. I found him alright, on the second floor, holding another new player like me over the edge of the floor. You know we don't really die in this game but his guild has some way to make it happen for real. And the feeling of falling is not very nice." She shivered after the last sentence, then continued. "Still, for a new player is hard even getting to that point so I yelled and ran forward to stop my friend." She hung her head. In guild or shame, Arune couldn't decide. "And instead of helping, I pushed his hand and he dropped the player down. He was so angry, yelling at me, saying I had messed up everything, saying I costed them the whole mission, a rare item."

Arune didn't know what to say. This was complicated. But also Koharu's own problem for meddling where she shouldn't have.

Koharu sighed, finishing her story. "Since then I've been with them. They are everywhere, always, lurking, watching the other players, seeing if they have anything rare or expensive, then they come out of the shadows and attack."

"Then why didn't they do that with me?" Arune asked. "What's so special about me?"

"Two things." Koharu said, looking the boy in the eyes. "Your item, that ring, is extremely rare. And you're very strong. Your guild is strong, too, making this even more dangerous. So I told them to change the tactic, told them I'll lie to you and steal it. I didn't want to kill you." Arune didn't like this past tense. "But if you don't cooperate, this is not going to be nice. They might figure out what I am doing."

"You want me to give you a ring that would make a guild of murderers even stronger? Are you crazy?!" Arune asked, his voice low, dangerous.

"No! Listen to me! I want you to help me." Koharu said, her eyes sad. She sat in front of him so she could be on one level with him, looking him in the eyes. "I want to end their plans, their guild, their... Lives."


	16. Reading books

Yui liked reading books a lot. It was maybe a bit strange, considering how she could scan anything, any site or document, and would find what she needed immediately. She had the whole internet for information, she did these strange and complicated operations in a matter of seconds. Yet she liked just sitting in the living room with her Papa and Mama and reading a book in silence. The old fashioned, human way. She even made the documents and books she downloaded look like actual authentic books. After a few questions to Asuna and Kirito, she had perfected how books looked and feel so now everything she read for fun was converted to a book form. At least the things with more than fifteen pages.

Asuna and Kirito had talked about this, how Yui was in a way growing up, looking and behaving more and more like a human, understanding humans better, too. It was an interesting process to see right before your eyes (and kind of scary, what with everyone talked how robots and computers were going to take over the world one day). But, the two of them decided to have a little experiment of their own. They were going to see which books Yui liked better.

Maybe romance or fiction, sci-fi or encyclopedias. Even student books were in the long list those two had prepared to give to Yui. Subtly, of course.

"Hey, Yui." Kirito called one day from his place in the rocking chair. The little girl looked at him from her game of chess with Asuna (the poor girl was getting pummeled by Yui) and Kirito continued talking. "Do you want me to recommend you a book?"

"Yes, Papa!" She nodded excitedly.

"Read the Narnia series and tell me what you think." He said. The little girl nodded again.

"This is not one book though, Papa."

"They are short, you'll finish them quickly." Kirito smiled.

Two days later, she really had finished them. When asked how, she said she doesn't need sleep so she can read whenever. That made sense.

"So? Did you like them?" Kirito asked.

"Yes, they were quite interesting. I'd want to befriend Aslan." Yui said. "But it could be a bit confusing at some points, with all the time jumps."

"So let me give you a book recommendation, Yui-chan." Asuna said next, not giving Kirito a chance to say anything. "How about 'The Little Prince'?"

On the next day, Yui had finished it.

"It was fun. And sad. And surprising." That's all she said.

Kirito's turn next. He decided on something more grown up. American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

In three days, Yui's comment was ' some where nice, others were greedy... and the ending was strange'.

Asuna's next pick was a real classic - Pride and Prejudice. Yui liked the romance in it and how Darcy changed his attitude.

This went on for quite some time, Kirito and Asuna giving Yui books they had read or planned on reading. The little girl even read the students books on Japanese language and on computer mechanics they gave her. Her comments were always both expected and strange. She was still a program herself, an AI, she didn't understand everything like a human yet, not fully at least. So she didn't always get the deeper meanings or little points and jokes.

But in time she began getting them more and more. She asked one of the two who had recommended her the book to clear up some things if need be.

In a way, she was growing up. Learning about humans from the books was interesting process. You could see many different people in them, many different sides and natures. Many different thoughts and actions. Soon Yui began seeing some of the traits of the people in the books in the people around her. She began reading humans and their behavior better.

It was kind of scary but also helpful, Yui could warn Asuna and Kirito when a player was lying or an NPC was hiding something.

The best and more interesting part though was when Yui read the students books. She understood the material better than Asuna and Kirito and could help them or give them more information on a subject. In a way, it was like she was reading about herself, especially when reading Kirito's books and notebooks. Soon enough, she Yui was able to help Kirito with his school projects.

"I think we created a monster." Joked Kirito one day, walking to the school cafeteria with Asuna.

"Why? Did she make a remark about taking the planet over?" Asuna asked. Under her joking tone though, there was a little wariness. What if Yui really evolved too much?

"No, not yet." Kirito laughed a little. "I had left her app open on my phone during class and she began answering the teacher's questions, even arguing with him on one topic. I nearly got in trouble."

"Should we stop with the book experiments and just let her read whatever she wants?" Asuna asked thoughtfully. "Although it might be a bit late."

"Yeah, it might be..."

"Let's go back to teaching her how to cook or go fishing with you." Asuna proposed.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. I could use the company." Kirito agreed.

Who knows, it could've been too late already. Asuna and Kirito might have unknowingly started the first AI revolution...


	17. Making a (mess) cake

Kirito had quite the appetite, everyone knew that. From sandwiches to cooked meals to sandwiches and fast food to sandwiches and something sweet for desert. Sandwiches were his favourite though, especially if they were made by Asuna.

(No, he hadn't called her Sandwich-kun on a few occasions, his tongue hadn't slipped at all.)

So yes, Kirito liked all kinds of food. But not many knew he had a sweet tooth, too. And quite the big one at that.

When he went out with the other girls or Klein and Agil, he would behave himself. But if he was only with Asuna or Sugu or, even worse, alone, he could eat a whole cake by himself probably. There was no stopping him.

So, thanks to that, Asuna had taken to learning more recipes for cakes or just some sweet deserts. Kitiro too was trying to learn to cook more things, often coming to Asuna's home since the kitchen there was bigger and always full to the brim with products, spices and the such. It was like a restaurant's kitchen, not that Kirito had been in one ever. That's what Asuna told him one time.

Today was one of these days. Kirito was at Asuna's home and they were about to try some new recipe. Neither of them had made it before so it was going to be interesting. And maybe fun. Probably a disaster, too. Maybe they would have to clean later. Who knows...

"And please try not to set anything on fire. I had to air out our house for like five hours this one time." Asuna half warned, half joked as the two of them entered the kitchen.

"Eh..." Kirito rubbed his neck. "You know my cooking skills are better in the real world than the virtual. Besides, it's only a cake, how can I possibly set it on fire?"

"You could find a way." Asuna said as she began opening cupboards to take the needed products out. Kirito just looked helpless, watching her from where he had propped himself against the table. "Don't just stand there." She turned around and jested him. "Begin making the batter while I oil the tin."

Kirito walked to the master chef and she gave him a piece of paper with instructions. He read it over a few times, selecting the ingredients and measuring them before finally beginning to mix the batter. By then Asuna had oiled the tin and had turned the oven on to warm it up. She helped Kirito with the last few steps before they put the batter in the tin and the tin in the oven. Kirito let out a sigh, time for a break, the hard part was over.

"Here." Asuna suddenly handed him a mop. "Let's clean a bit."

"Why? We will have to clean again after we decorate the cake." He tried to protest. "Besides, it's not that bad, we did quite well."

"Really?" Asuna lifted and eyebrow, giving a small smile before her eyes looked away from Kirito and around the room. The boy did the same and noticed that actually the room wasn't as clean as he thought.

There was some flour on the ground next to the table where he had mixed the batter. There were some spots of batter too, both on the table and on the ground. Some of the oil had left a few droplets, too. Ripped packages from the other ingredients were left here and there, too, adding to the mess.

Asuna's knowing eyebrow was still lifted when Kirito's eyes returned to her.

"Alright, alright. We'll clean." He hung his head down, giving up.

He mopped the floor as Asuna wiped the table next to him. She was collecting everything in a small bin so nothing fell on the ground or Kirito's head as he had leaned forward on the mop. The boy couldn't run away from his inevitable destiny. Which, by the way, was his own fault.

Trying to reach a spot under the table, Kirito bent even lower, pulling the mop behind himself. He hit Asuna with the mop, moving her hand with the small bin away from the table just as she was swiping some flour into it. And so, the flour ended up on Kirito's hair and neck.

"Kirito-kun, be careful." Asuna said as she tried to remove the white powder from her boyfriend's hair. He straightened up, shaking his head. "No!" Asuna squealed.

"Pay back."

"For what?" She asked, looking at him as if he was a little kid. He was behaving like one, Kirito knew it.

"Making me clean." He said calmly. While Asuna was distracted, he took some of the left over flour and threw it at her, quickly running around the table.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna yelled, stunned from his action. She wiped her face so she could see without flour entering her eyes. By the look she gave Kirito, he knew she was angry. Grabbing the mop as if it was her rapier, she began running after him.

"No! You can hurt me with this!" Kirito squeaked. Being hit with a mop wasn't a nice thing, he was sure of it. Once he circled back to the flour bag, he grabbed it, throwing some back at Asuna. She managed to dodge most of it and swung the mop at Kirito's legs.

"You're not getting away." She said. Meanwhile Kirito had managed not to fall (much) and slid a few centimeters on his knees, getting up again as he turned the next corner of the table.

"But this is not how you fight in a food war!" He protested again. "You use _food_ , not weapons."

"Food is a weapon, too, technically." Asuna reasoned, making Kirito scoff.

"Food is the permitted weapon though." Came a voice from where the door to the kitchen was. The couple stopped their chasing immediately, looking to the person who had entered the room.

"Mum!" Asuna froze.

"Madam..." Kirito said awkwardly, slowly putting the flour bag back on the table, wiping a few white flecks of it to the ground. As if that helped much, considering now the whole room was covered in flour.

"Asuna asks me to let the kitchen staff have a break today so you two can cook and this is what you do here? I don't see much cooking." The woman said indignantly, crossing her arms in front of herself.

"Um..." Asuna thought of what to say. "We did cook, the cake is in the oven." She pointed out.

"And this was my fault. I promise I'll clean." Kirito bowed his head.

The older woman didn't say anything for a bit. "Bring me a piece of that cake later." She said with a barely visible smirk and exited the room. The two left in it just stared after her.

"That's it?" Kirito asked. "She wants cake?"

"Yes, I was expecting more trouble, too." Asuna let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Just then the oven pinged, telling the couple that the cake was ready for decoration and then consumption.

"We better get on with this or the cake will burn." Asuna said as she walked towards the oven. Kirito got the whipped cream, chocolate and strawberries. He quickly wiped some more of the flour on the table so Asuna could put the cake there without getting it dusty with the white powder.

Ten minutes later the cake was finally and officially ready. They tried waiting for it to cool off but it looked to good not to take a bite of it immediately. Kirito cut three pieces of it and together with Asuna they went to the girl's mother's study. Once in, the older woman only gave them a quick glance. Asuna put one plate in front of her, mumbling a quiet apology for the mess in the kitchen. The woman nodded, taking her fork and trying a bite of the cake.

"Mm, this is quite good actually. Good job." She praised after a few seconds of heavy silence in the room. "Now, if I remember correctly, Kirigaya-kun made a promise to clean the kitchen." The woman smirked as Kirito barely managed to stop a groan from coming out of his mouth. "You can finish your cake first, of course."

It took him half an hour to clean the whole kitchen but he managed it. Him and his big mouth had gotten him into this. Meanwhile Asuna was still in her mother's study, the woman didn't let her help, seemingly having fun with this. At least Asuna awarded him by giving him the bigger half of the cake to take home.


	18. First attack

Arune had been too shocked to say anything, just gaping at the girl before couldn't believe she had just said she wanted to kill those people. That's what 'end their lives' translated to in his head anyway, what else could the girl mean? So Arune had just stared at her not saying anything.

After a few awkward and tense moments, Koharu had sighed, moving behind Arune to untie him. She had whispered a quiet 'goodbye' and just walked out of the building. Like that, as if nothing had happened. A minute later Arune had walked out too, looking around, still waiting for an ambush or attack, something. But there was no such thing so he just ran until he found himself in the central plaza again. From there he went to the guild building and logged off.

Arune needed time to think. Maybe tell someone what had happened, too. But who would believe him? Or call the police, that would be a better idea. That might get him in trouble though, if they didn't find any proof and thought he was pranking them for fun, that is.

What was he to do? Fight them himself? What if they really did kill him?

Maybe Arune needed Koharu's help. They would find proof together, then send it to the creators of the game and the police. And hope they don't get killed in the meantime. That was as good a plan as any.

He didn't eat much at dinner and immediately after it, logged back in SAO. He walked around the floors, even found that building Koharu had dragged him to, searching for the girl. But again, there was no trace of her. Maybe she had logged off for the day, too. It was getting pretty late anyway.

Now that Arune thought about it, he didn't have any mean of reaching Koharu, it was always her that found him. How, he had no idea. Maybe another rare item?

Walking around Aincrad like that didn't do much but tire Arune and could potentially land him in another trap by Koharu's friends. Or guild mates. Blackmailers. Murderers. Whatever they were. So soon he gave up and logged off again, going to bed. Tomorrow she would probably find him again.

Tomorrow she didn't find him. There was no sign of her. Same on the next day. And the next. And the next. And so on for a week. Koharu was gone. Arune began worrying again. What if they had done something to her? Or caught her and didn't let her free? If they knew about her plan? If she had done something reckless?

This time Arune forbid himself from fealing afraid and hiding in the guild building. He went out everyday, walked around every floor, acted as if he was farming but in truth watched his surroundings, the people around him, even the mobs and if they behaved strangely. He wasn't paranoid, just careful, watching and waiting.

Thanks to this, he managed to evade the first real attack launched at him.

It was almost two weeks after Koharu had disappeared. Arune was on the fifth floor, doing a New Year's quest there. He wanted to finish it quickly as his holiday was ending soon. For once he had abandoned his search for a bit.

The floor was dark, creepy, perfect for an ambush. The people after Arune seemed to think like that, too. While Arune was fighting one of the mummies there, a shadow jumped behind him, something reflected the light from the moon. The boy felt the wind on his neck and ducked, the big axe barely missing his head, cutting a few strands of his hair instead. Arune spun around, managing to block the next hit with his sword. Unfortunately though, the mummy behind him managed to hit him and lower his life points a bit.

While the axe wielder prepared for the next hit, lifting his weapon, Arune spun in circle, slashing through the mummy and grazing his attacker's armor. Now with only one enemy left, he could focus only on the player before him. Arune remembered all the practicing, all the stances and moves. He could do this. He had only one enemy. Axe wielder, meaning he was slow even if his hits could be deadly. Arune ducked and jumped, dodging, hitting here and there, giving his opponent small wounds, taking small chunks of his life.

The axe wielder finally noticed half of his life was gone and began defending himself a bit more. It was too late though, Arune used one of his skills, pushing his enemy's life points to the red zone and making him bleed. Now was a good time for questions, he thought.

"Why are you attacking me?" Maybe playing dumb could open the other player's mouth. But it didn't work as the axe flew towards Arune again.

"What do you want from me?" Arune tried again. No answer. "Where is Koharu?" The hand holding the axe tightened around the handle but the face under the hood still gave no answer. "How do you kill the players in real life?" Arune tried again, getting to the serious questions.

"Let me hit you and you'll see." The figure grumbled. Sounded like a male player although they could probably change their voice enough to make it unrecognizable. Arune had had enough.

"Where is Koharu?!" He yelled, ending the games and slashing the axe's handle in two.

"In a ditch somewhere, hopefully dead." The voice sneered, one of his hands flying to his back and pulling a teleport crystal out of his pocket. Before Arune could react, the hooded figure had disappeared.

Arune was angry, furious, livid. He turned around slashing two mummies and a ghost with a single skill. He couldn't do anything, couldn't get more information. The only thing he did was hear that the only other person who could potentially be on his side, was probably dead. His legs gave up under him, his eyes tearing up.

Arune fell to the ground, now even more lost than before.


	19. A Cold

It had been a nice night, Asuna and Kirito walking around in the quiet of the night, trying to spot the stars in the sky, meeting a small kitten and playing with it for a bit. Then it all went downhill as clouds appeared out of nowhere, everything around them darkening. Moments later it began raining.

And the two of them had no umbrella. The rain was so strong, they were drenched in seconds. But deciding to brave it, they ran to Asuna's house. They were on their way there anyway. But once Kirito was sure Asuna was in safely, he ran out again, yelling something about school in the morning and how he had to go home. Asuna tried to protest, saying he could stay or at least take an umbrella but her boyfriend had already ran out of earshot, the rain making both seeing and hearing hard.

Nearly an hour later Kirito finally called Asuna to tell her he had gotten home (after getting a bit lost once) and that he was fine, all dry and warm now. And that they would see each other in school tomorrow.

But they didn't. Because Kirito didn't come to school. When Asuna messaged him to ask where he was, Sugu answered her, saying that Kirito was sick, in bed, with fever, coughing and probably half dead. Basically, he couldn't come to school today. Or this week.

After hearing the whole story, Liz laughed quite a lot, having a good mood during the whole day in the expense of the sick Kirito. Silica acted a bit more grown up, worrying about the boy just as Asuna did. But the latter couldn't survive the whole day at school, knowing Kirito was alone at home, not feeling well (Sugu had to go to school too after all and their mother was as always busy). So Asuna asked Liz and Silica to send her their notes later andd left the school building.

Fifteen minutes and one taxi ride later, Asuna was in front of Kirito's home. Instead of ringing and risking waking the boy up or making him go down the stairs, Asuna decided to use the key Kirito had given her for emergency cases. She supposed this was one such case.

The girl walked in quietly, hoping that Kirito wouldn't think there is a burglar in the house and attack her somehow. As expected though, there was no one else in the house. Asuna tiptoed to the second floor and Kirito's room. She opened the door slowly, quietly, peering inside. Kirito was laying on the bed, surrounded by medicine bottles on his nightstand and tissues on the other side of his bed. He was awake, reading a magazine about the newest technology.

But just as Sugu had said, he didn't look good. He was sweating from the fever, his fringe stuck to his forehead, his cheeks redder than normal. His eyes were a bit swollen and glazed over, too. Suddenly he coughed, the sound coming out of his mouth sounding as if someone was moving a few knives through the boy's throat.

"I know what you're going to say." He croaked out, looking at Asuna with not at all surprised face. Sugu had probably told him she had tried to check on him. "That I should've at least taken an umbrella or waited in until the rain had at least weakened." Asuna only nodded. "Yeah, I'm an idiot." Kirito tried to smile but instead another cough bubbled out of him.

Asuna was too worried to smile or reprimand him. She just shook her head, giving him a small smile.

"Do you want me to make you a soup? Or bring you something?" She asked.

"A soup would be nice." Kirito agreed, dropping the tough act and the magazine to the ground, laying back down in his bed. Asuna entered the room, properly tucking in the boy with his covers and putting a hand on his forehead to check his temperature. He was burning. She moved the matted hair away from Kirito's eyes before turning to exit the room.

"I'll bring you the soup in twenty minutes, you try to sleep in the meantime." Asuna said. Kirito nodded and closed his eyes before the girl quietly closed the room's door.

Asuna went down to the kitchen, checking what was in the fridge and in the cupboards. The ingredients for a simple soup were there so she began working on it. And in twenty minutes, the soup really was ready. Asuna grabbed a tray, put a bowl of the warm food on it, grabbed a spoon and went back to Kirito's room.

The boy had managed to fall asleep. Asuna didn't want to but she had to wake him up. It was well after lunch time now, he had to eat something.

"Kirito-kun." The girl whispered, shaking the boy lightly. He mumbled but didn't wake up. "Kirito-kun!"

On the second try Kirito groaned but opened his eyes "Soup time?" He croaked. Asuna nodded and he pulled himself to sitting position. The girl gave him the tray and also sat down on the bed. "Running from school, I see." Kirito tried to joke.

"Running in the rain, I see." Asuna deadpanned.

"Yeah, I promise I won't do it again." Kirito shrugged. "It wasn't that good of an idea now that I think about it."

Kirito finished his soup quite quickly, getting a promise that there would be more later. Then, Asuna got her students books out, planning to do some studying while also looking after Kirito.

"You know I'm not a little kid, right?" He asked. She lifted an eyebrow, watching him without saying anything. "I only behave like one sometimes, alright." He smiled. "At least keep me company. Let's talk or play a game. Cards or chess?"

So for the next two hours that was what the two of them did, played either chess or card games. After a light afternoon breakfast of another bowl of soup, Sugu opened Kirito's room door.

"Oh, Asuna, you're here." She said surprised.

"Running from school." Kirito mumbled. The girl just shrugged.

"Be careful not to catch his cold." Sugu joked.

"I hope I won't." Asuma said. "By the way, you have soup for dinner."

"Good job, Kazuto. Making your girlfriend baby you around and even cook for you."

"She proposed herself."Kirito tried to defend himself weekly.

After a bit more banter and chatting, it was time for Asuna to leave, she needed to get home before dinner time. So she said her goodbye and left the other two to their own devises, hopefully not teasing and arguing too much.

The girl got home just in time, sneezing just as she walked through the front door. Probably her mother was muttering about her, wondering where she was. She could say they had held the students in the school for some lesson.

Little did she know that tomorrow she wouldn't go to school because she had caught Kirito's cold. He, on the other hand, would be feeling a lot better.


	20. Drama

"What if we try to create some drama?"

"Drama? Why? And where?"

"So you're curious, huh? Not so innocent then."

"Don't ruffle my hair! And I don't want drama!"

"It's going to be fun though."

"Not for the people you're targeting."

"Asuna and Kirito won't mind. Besides, it's going to be like a test for their relationship."

"Haven't they been through enough?"

"Don't worry, no one's life is going to be in danger this time."

Liz and Silica turned to the window, watching the couple in question have lunch in the school yard. The younger girl looked to the older one, for a second seeing a devilish smile there before she smiled all sweet and innocent.

This was not going to end well...

Liz got her plan in motion during the next class she shared with Asuna. They sat next to each other so talking during class was possible, even if it was not very easy.

"You know, some girls had swarmed around your Kirito-kun earlier." Liz whispered, not looking at Asuna.

"That's normal. You've seen how people are around me, everyone talks with us." The girl said but Liz noticed how her eyebrows furrowed a bit, barely noticeable. "We were two of the most well-known people in Aincrad. And Kirito freed us."

"Yes, I know this." Liz rolled her eyes, waving a hand around before remembering they were in class and had to behave. "But why would one of them give him her number?"

Asuna tensed, now this she didn't even try to hide. "I'm sure it's nothing. Kirito-kun wouldn't call a girl like that, no matter how many phone numbers he got."

Liz decided to leave this conversation there. Next was phase two - talking with Kirito himself. She got to him when both their classes had sports together.

"Hey, Kirito-kun!" The boy noticed her and smiled, also saying hi. "You know, I saw some guy earlier getting closer than normal to Asuna. Thought it's you but then he walked away and... Wasn't you." She shrugged.

"Oh... Um..." Kirito shut his mouth for a second, looking to the ground, his hands squeezing into fists. "Thanks for telling me, Liz."

And so their class began and they couldn't talk anymore. Liz felt a little guilty but just as Asuna had said, this happened all the time to them. She probably won't be in trouble. That much anyway.

All the classes ended for the day and the four friends waited for each other to walk together some part of the way home. Asuna and Kirito though just looked at opposite directions, not talking. Silica, of course, noticed this and nudged Liz.

"What did you do? What did you tell them?" She whisper-yelled.

"Oh, nothing much. Just that some people have been too close to the other, doing things they shouldn't have." Liz smirked.

"You're doing things that you shouldn't be doing!" Silica squealed. "Once they know, they're going to kill you." She looked to the couple walking in front of them in silence, worrying what would happen.

"Don't worry. They won't think anything of it." Still, even Liz had her doubts and worries now. This really didn't look that good.

"So..." Kirito coughed. "I heard some guy tried to... Talk with you today." Kirito whispered, hoping the two girls walking behind him and Asuna wouldn't hear anything. Not that this was the best place or moment to ask, it was just eating him on the inside.

"Really? I heard some girl had given you her phone number." Asuna retorted, glaring at the boy.

Unfortunately for Liz, that had actually happened today (well, not only today but Kirito had decided that Asuna didn't need to know about those things, he wouldn't call those girls anyway, he always threw the pieces of paper away). The boy rubbed his neck, looking guilty.

"So it's true?!" Asuna's voice got louder, getting the attention of both Liz and Silica. The former froze in fear, she didn't know that the things she had said had actually come true.

"I-I threw it away, I always do." Kirito stuttered.

"Always?!" Asuna yelled.

Now all four of them froze in place. This was really serious, no one had expected it to be this big, especially not Liz. Asuna stared at her boyfriend for a few seconds before scoffing and quickly walking away. No one followed her, they all knew Asuna could be scary, especially when angry.

"What..." Kirito mumbled. Then he turned to Liz. "You said... Wait." He made the connection, Liz realized. "If this is a prank, it's not a fun one." And then he too was gone.

"You have to fix this." Silica said.

"Tomorrow. They better calm down a bit first." Liz shuddered. "Come on, let's go home now."

On the next day... Things didn't look any better. Neither Asuna, nor Kirito talked. To anyone, not just each yet again bugged Liz to do something about it. And finally she agreed. She couldn't run anymore. So she sent a text to both Asuna and Kirito, telling them to meet her on the roof of the school. She thought she had the easiest exit there, just jump off of it. Or, you know, run down the stairs and jam the door so they can't follow her. But the jumping looked better at the moment.

Once both of her friends were on the roof with her, she managed to get the courage to tell them what she had done.

"I thought it was going to be a prank, not that you two would actually take it so seriously." She explained.

"This is our relationship, of course it's serious." Asuna said, obviously furious. Kirito just nodded, still feeling guilty after hearing that there was no guy near Asuna and Liz had actually made everything up. It was just unlucky she had gotten it right about the girls' numbers, he was guilty too in a way.

"I'm sorry, I promise I'll make it up to you." Liz backed away, ready to run, thankful Asuna didn't have her rapier here.

Asuna sighed. "Alright but don't do this again. Or I might do it to you once you get a boyfriend." She warned. Liz immediately nodded and fled the scene.

"Sorry. About the phone numbers. I just didn't want you to get angry." Kirito mumbled after the other girl was gone. Asuna turned towards him, a pout on her face. He staggered backwards a bit. "I promise I haven't called any of them, I swear!"

Asuna didn't say anything, just stepped closer to him and hugged him. Then, she calmed him down. "I know you wouldn't call anyone, I trust you."

"Oh, good..." Kirito sighed. "I've called a few guys though. Some wanted to party with me in ALO. Um... Yeah."

Asuna pulled away, lifting and eyebrow and giving Kirito a small smirk. "Only party and fight mobs I hope." Kirito sighed, the teasing never stopped for him.


	21. Working on the plan

The next time Arune saw Koharu was really weird and almost impossible. He was both creeped out and glad.

It was all very confusing.

After Arune had been attacked by that axe wielder and hearing Koharu was probably dead, he had kind of stopped playing the game. He had only written a quick leave note to the leaders of the guild, saying he didn't know when he would return and logged off. Right there and then. He didn't even bother to get to a safer point so he wouldn't get ambushed, he just ran away.

His life was on the line, now it hit him what this meant. So maybe he was going to stop playing this game for real, forever, hoping the murderous guild and its members didn't know where he lived.

It turned out they knew. Well, one member of the guild knew. And made sure the others didn't by deleting the information. At least she hoped they didn't know. And that if they knew, that she was going to get to Arune first.

While Koharu had gone missing and Arune had searched for her, the girl had actually worked on her plan, trying to get more information and find a way to stop her 'guildmates'. She didn't know what had happened with Arune or what he was doing, she had decided not to get the boy any deeper into this mess. He was strong enough, he could defend himself. She hoped.

Koharu had sneaked into her guild's headquarters, and using the item they had given her to use on Arune (a ring making her invisible, most rare items were rings for some reason), she had gotten into the vault room. There were all the rare items the guild had 'found' (stolen) and only the two guild leaders could give an item to someone. If someone took anything without permission, they were either tortured (Koharu didn't know how this worked) or killed (this she was about to find out).

So far the items collected were around fifteen. And nine of them were rings, the other were always some other accessory - bracelets or even hair ties. Weren't those item easy to lose, especially if you're fighting? What with how she had lost her hair accessory, albeit a normal, not rare one.

There was one that looked like phone though. And that one caught the attention immediately since there was nothing so modern-looking in SAO. Koharu decided to try it out first and hit the jackpot.

That was the machine with which they killed the players. It was simple. You had to just enter the name of the player and on which map in Aincrad they were, then wait for someone or something to make their life points go to zero. While they were waiting to get revived or teleported to a safe zone, the game would play music, often from the player's own playlists. That meant it reached files on the vr machine. And this little device in Koharu's hand sent a virus to those song files, making them somehow attack everything else on the gaming device, even the human itself. After all, the brain was a delicate organ.

But the evil device also reached other information. Like IP addresses and via a GPS program, even the real address of the person attacked, where they lived in the real world.

Koharu couldn't believe all of this. Who would create such a machine? And why? This thing shouldn't exist here, shouldn't exist anywhere, let alone in a game. Was it a police or military device?

"Don't touch what's not yours, little girl." Came a voice from behind Koharu. "You don't know what power you are holding in your hands."

Koharu froze but somehow managed to regain her composure just enough to say something. "The instructions are quite clear though. I know how you do it. How you kill people!" She turned around, facing one of the two leaders of the guild.

"If you wanted to kill that boy, you could've told me. I would have given you this item. Maybe." The big man said, walking closer to Koharu. Then he stopped and smirked. "But I have the feeling it's not him you want to kill."

Koharu clenched her teeth, not saying anything. The man rolled his eyes, again walking closer to her.

"You see, you're pretty easy to read. Especially when I have an item which reads people's thoughts. Even if they are invisible." Koharu's eyes widened. Of course, both of the leaders always had one ring equipped, they always had a rare item on. "Now you see your mistake, huh?" The man sneered. "Still, it's too late, you're not getting out of here!"

He took out his mace and swung it at Koharu. She jumped to the site but her arm still got hit and according to the system message had now a broken status for one minute. Meaning she couldn't move it. Good thing she was holding the phone device in her other hand, the same hand that had her rare ring on. This man could sense her thought but couldn't see from where exactly they were coming if she was invisible.

So the girl used her rare item and began running at random patterns but still towards the door, trying to evade any more hits. To make it harder to read her thoughts, she began repeating only one word in her mind - rabbit. Why this word, she couldn't tell. Maybe because she had to run like one?

The man chasing her didn't give up easily though. He somehow followed her all the way to the Teleport gate. Once she teleported away, she was safe. He didn't follow her. Koharu thought hiding amongst humans was the safest so she had teleported to the small town on the tenth floor and entered a random house. They couldn't see her and she was as quite as possible. For now, she was going to stay there, hiding her thoughts. She forced herself not to talk about Arune or the guild or the items. Just clear her mind. Also, begin thinking about something more believable than only one word. Maybe about her homework or where she wanted to farm next. Just nothing suspicious.

Koharu hid in this house for a whole day before going outside. She didn't search for Arune though, she didn't need his help, she knew what to do. If she got close enough to her guild mates, close enough to know on which map they were, she could end all of this.

But she couldn't harm even one person. It took her weeks to prepare and find them, starting from the not so important members of the guild. But even they knew what had happened and talked about it.

"It seems she ran off with something important. Her friend is in great danger, they've locked him."

"They don't let him log off?"

"They do but just for five minutes every six hours. You know they know his address and all that."

"They know all of our addresses."

"But not her's..." It was obvious who 'her' they were talking about.

"And we're in all this trouble cus of her and the leader's negligence."

"Shush you!"

"What about this flying guy? Do they have his address at least?" Flying guy? So Arune was fine for now?

"Don't think so. This mission failed."

"What if he tells the police?"

"Tells them what?"

"Didn't they send one man after him?"

"He got back half dead."

"And where is the flying guy now?"

"Hasn't logged in since the battle on the fifth floor. Coward."

He wasn't a coward, Koharu thought. He was brave for fighting and surviving against them. But this conversation had saved those guys' lives. She was going to find Arune again, make sure he was alive.

If using the machine/rare phone item worked on logged off people.

It turned out it did. And now Koharu was at Arune's home's door. His real life home's door. And he was so happy to see her there, just as much as she was.


	22. A Meeting

While Kirito was always ready to help his friends in ALO (and was also doing side quests, farming mobs, fishing, helping Asuna in the house, studied, went to school, trained a bit in real life, even cooked dinner), he also managed to still fight on the front lines, too, sometimes disappearing for a few hours, then returning when a message for a new unlocked floor appeared. Asuna and all his friends wondered how he did all that, how he found the time.

Asuna had stopped participating in clearing the floors after clearing the twenty second floor, everyone knew that. She didn't like the memories from the labyrinths and bosses she had, from all the deaths they had caused. Now, she was playing ALO and SAO only for fun, not fighting serious as before. The most serious fight she had put up was when she fought with Yuuki and then help her guild. Since then, Asuna had left the clearing of the game again.

Until one day Kirito had rushed through the door, Yui on his shoulder, asking Asuna to come help him with this next floor. On the question 'why', he had said because the boss was week against thrust weapons and because he needed someone to unite the people. Two of the big guilds clearing the new Aincrad castle had begun fighting for some reason.

Maybe the old KoB vice leader could scare them a bit and make them behave?

Asuna lifted an eyebrow at that, pointing the knife she was holding at him before speaking. Kirito took a careful step back, he knew his girlfriend could be dangerous even with small kitchen knives.

"You saying I boss around?" She asked.

"Um... That and you were scary back then. Not that you're not and now but... You were bossy and dangerous on another level in old Aincrad." A smile began growing on Asuna's face as Kirito continued digging his grave, an eyebrow lifting up. Kirito noticed this and stopped rambling. "I'm not helping myself, am I?"

"Quite the opposite, Kirito-kun." Asuna put the knife down and wiped her hands clean. "But if you've come specifically to ask for help instead of sending me a message, it must be important." Asuna looked sternly at Kirito for a few seconds before putting him out of his misery. "Alright, Black Swordsman, the vice leader of the strongest guild will help you."

Asuna nodded with a determined look while Kirito exhaled, relieved. Yui cheered, jumping on his head. Asuna decided this might be fun after all, she had fought only quest bosses lately. And besides, this would mean fighting besides Kirito again, switching and attacking together like in the old days. Asuna missed the thrill of it. Making a few people afraid of her was worth it in this case. And she was sure Kirito would keep the bad memories at bay.

So on the next weekend, Asuna got out of the house on the twenty second floor all geared up and ready for a fight. Together with Kirito and Yui, they flew to the Teleport Gate and from there went to the front lines on the 46th floor. Asuna was surprised, this time the castle was cleared at a more steady pace. Well, with no real danger to the players, more of them were able to join in and help.

Kirito let Asuna to where the meeting about the clearing of the floor was held and they sat in the back, only listening at first. Asuna wanted to see what the problem was first, then go talk with the leaders of the guilds.

So what she learnt was this: the boss was weak to thrust weapons so the rapiers and spears were going to be the main force. The rapiers would attack while the spears would support and attack when they could. Swords would try to attack too and attract the attention away from the rapiers. The other weapons would be for support, too.

Now, it seemed the problem was in distributing the roles and who would use what weapon. That's where the two guild leaders couldn't agree. They both wanted their whole guilds to be in the main force, leaving not enough people for the support. The other people who wanted to join the battle didn't even have a chance to intercept or say something.

In truth, Asuna found this whole ordeal stupid. The leaders were just greedy, wanting their guilds to get the last hit and get the rare drops from the boss. That's not how this was supposed to be done. You could clear this floating castle only if you fought together, as a team.

Asuna looked to Kirito who looked back at her. It was obvious he had the same opinion as her. So she inclined her head and they got up, walking closer to the stage where the two guild leaders were fighting.

"Excuse me." Asuna said and suddenly the whole hall was looking at her. She had forgotten how this felt, to have everyone listen to you, watch your every move. "Why don't you let an equal number of people from both of your guilds use thrust weapons? Everyone else would be support."

"Who said they can wield those weapons?" One of the leaders said.

"Who said you can?" Asuna crossed her arms, assuming her scolding stance. Kirito resisted the urge to take a step back. But he couldn't stop the proud smile on his lips.

"And who are you to talk to us like that?" The other leader asked.

"I'm Asuna, vice leader of the old Knights of the Blood guild." She said proudly. The two men immediately got quiet. Both Asuna and her old guild were famous in new Aincrad, people having heard of them either because of the guild's leader, or the guild's achievements. But no matter the reason, everyone respected and feared the people who had taken part in it.

The whole hall was quiet, Yui noted in Kirito's ear. He only nodded, watching how his girlfriend silenced two tall and seemingly strong men only with her words.

"An-and so what?" One of the men managed to squeak out. "Why should we listen to you?"

"Because I was also the tactition of some of the clearing groups in old Aincrad. And I'm telling you, this plan of yours will fail. You won't succeed in beating the boss, let alone steal all the items that drop." Asuna walked forward and stepped on the stage, walking to a blackboard that had some attack plans drawn on. "First, you need to make your main force only the people with certain level of wielding a thrust weapon. No matter how many per guild they are." She looked pointedly at the leaders. "That would maximise the efficiency. Next, the attacking support, the swords. You need people with high speed stats so they can also survive out there. They would attack the boss, yes, but their main objective is to make sure the main force is safe and distract the boss. The back support is as usual, shields before every big attack and healing when necessary. If you want axe and Mace users, they better be tanks, too. This boss is quite fast and hard to dodge."

Asuna looked up to see if everyone agreed on the plan. Only Kirito and Yui nodded, everyone else was gaping at her.

Suddenly Asuna remembered this was not her old guild, she didn't actually know the people she was talking to. She straightened up, thinking of an apology for interrupting the meeting like that when one of the two leaders nodded.

"Yes, I suppose this is a better tactic. I heard the boss is quite fast."

"We actually have a few tanks in our guild. This could work." The other men nodded.

Asuna let out a quiet sigh and while the two men have around orders and positions, she sneaked off the stage and towards Kirito.

"This was crazy." She mumbled, her whole face red from embarrassment.

"This was just as in the old days. I had the feeling I was actually at a KoB meeting." Kirito joked. "Good job."

Asuna shook her head, her hair floating around her a bit. "No, it was easier this time. The planning at least. We've beaten the boss once, we know what to expect."

"True." Kirito agreed. "So now let's join the battle and show them how it's done."

"What are the item drops?" Asuna asked, suddenly suspicious.

Kirito got a creepy smile on. "Oh, nothing special, just these really nice black boots for the winter. With extra warming effect." Asuna stared at him. He was doing all of this for the items? "And, uh... There's also an accessory for players who use thrust weapons. Gives them a few speed points. At least it was there before." Kirito stammered.

"Alright." Asuna sighed. A few more points to her speed stats weren't that bad of an idea. "Let's beat this boss."


	23. Beating the boss

After crashing the meeting and everyone following her with their eyes, Asuna didn't really want to talk anymore, suddenly getting shy. So Kirito had to go up to the table where people signed up for the boss battle and were given their positions. After saying his and Asuna's stats, Kirito returned to Asuna, telling her she was on the main attack team while he was on the sword support team. Of course, they were with one of the highest stats, they had even gotten quite famous in ALO thanks to their achievements.

The battle was tomorrow though, so for now the couple and Yui retreated back to their house on the twenty second floor, spending the rest of the day playing chess and clearing a quest with Silica. They didn't even think of training for tomorrow's boss battle. Asuna was right after all, they had beaten it once, knew its pattern. And were stronger than before.

On the next day, Asuna and Kirito were one of the first to arrive in front of the labyrinth, Yui traveling for free in Kirito's pocket. The couple checked their weapons, armor and items, preparing potions and resurrection stones. Just in case. Then Kirito proposed for them to duel, just for a warm up. There was no time though as everyone had gathered and the leaders let them inside the labyrinth. Everyone went to their teams and walked in, fighting off the mobs that attacked them and climbing higher and closer to the next floor.

After forty minutes they reached the big doors to the boss room and decided to take a short break. People healed and rested, fixing up and getting in formation again. The doors opened and the big group entered, waiting for the boss to appear. A moment later the boss appeared, immediately attacking, charging right into the group.

The shields defended while the others ran behind the boss. Asuna and the other rapiers charged, Kirito and the other swords cut as the boss' legs distracting him and pissing him off, making him run after them. After a few attacks a switch chain began and the spears ran forward while the rapiers healed a bit. Then, they switched again and the rapiers attacked, quickly dodging as the boss spun around cutting everything in its path, going straight for the healers.

This was not planned. Who attacks the back rows? They were defenseless.

While the panic took over everyone, making them run, Kirito jumped in front of the boss, parrying it with his two swords.

"Switch!" He yelled. This was the perfect opportunity for an attack since the boss staggered back, unable to swings his weapon again.

But there was no one to switch with him. Everyone was either on the floor, cut down or had ran to the other side of the room. Well, everyone but one. Asuna was running forward, jumping high and piercing right through the boss, using the skill she had received from Yuuki - Mother's Rosario.

It wasn't enough to kill the boss but it confused him, making his recovery even slower. Kirito attacked while Asuna yelled for the others to get back in formation and attack. It wasn't going to be long before the boss was beaten. Soon enough the formations were back together, everyone looking at Asuna for more orders. Like a second nature, without even realizing it, the girl gave those orders. Told everyone what to do, how and where to attack. The boss was surrounded, unable to dodge the attacks, his little life points disappearing faster and faster.

Once he was in the red zone, Kirito unleashed his move - Starburst Stream. He sliced the boss right through the middle, getting the last hit. And rare drops. Luckily, he managed to hide the smug smirk before people began congratulating him. Asuna was proud and happy. And a bit guilty. As if they weren't strong enough already. But still, Kirito was a sucker for black clothes and avatars.

Later that day, at their house, both of them tried out their new items. Kirito was walking around like a model while Asuna tried her flying speed, crossing the lake outside a few times with her wings.

"So? You like your new accessory?" Yui asked once Asuna landed.

The older girl looked to an innocent looking Kirito, scoffing.

"Yeah, of course. It would be hopeful in future battles." She again glanced at Kirito. "Maybe it would be more useful to a weaker player but you know you're Papa. Those are his beater tactics."

"Wait, what? No, they're not!" Kirito protested, making both Yui and Asuna laugh. "It was all fair and square. I hit the boss last, I won them. If you don't want the item, give it to me."

"No, I'll keep it." Asuna stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll tell you if I don't need it anymore."

"Complain, then use the item and complain again. Alright then." Kirito grumbled, walking away. "Next time I'm not giving you anything."

Kirito was happy though. He hadn't seen Asuna fight so serious in ages. It had been fun. She had had fun, judging by how happy she was. And of course, she was always there when he needed her. No one could beat them when they fought together, that was proven yet again.

Maybe he could talk her into joining him in a floor boss battle again?


	24. New Plan

"I thought you were dead." Arune said.

"Thanks for believing in me." Koharu rolled her eyes.

"But what are you doing here? How do you know where I live?" The boy was finally shrugging off the shocked feeling and catching up to what was actually happening.

"I stole a rare item." Koharu said. "I figured out how they killed the other players."

"Oh..." Arune didn't know what to say so he just stepped to the side, letting the girl inside, happy he was alone at home. His parents were going to go crazy over him bringing a girl home. Which technically he didn't, she brought herself alone. The boy blushed at his thoughts as Koharu passed by him and inside his home.

While he worried about his parents, the girl noticed that Arune really had a scar on his cheek, just as his avatar in the game they played. So it really wasn't only for looks. She wondered what had happened to him.

"So, um... What did you do? You disappeared for weeks?" Arune asked eventually. He had invited the girl in the living room, getting some cookies out and bringing two cups of tea.

"I didn't want to involve you anymore so I didn't contact you. Basically I hid thanks to my rare item and decided to work on my plan alone." She told him the whole story. Arune only listened, not being able to say anything. The story sounded as if out of a movie.

"But why are there such items in a game like that?" The boy finally asked.

"I've no idea. Maybe they make them themselves. What if they have hackers?"

Arune only shrugged. "So what now?"

"It's too risky to log in in our old accounts, they will see us immediately." Koharu said thoughtfully. "What if we make new ones?"

"And then what?" Arune wanted to see if the girl still planned on what she had said before. After all, she even had the killing item now. Well, had it in her old account.

But Koharu got quiet, thinking. She probably thought of the same thing. Then she mumbled. "I don't know..."

Arune exhaled, a little happy she didn't think of another weird plan. "I gave it some thought, too. My plan was to get enough evidence and tell the police."

"You think they won't manage to hide?" Koharu asked. "Besides, this is just a game, why would the police care?"

"Because people's lives are really in danger. They will have to listen!" Arune was sure this would work. It had to. Koharu sighed. She didn't have a better plan so she had to agree to this one.

"I can't believe you thought about this. I thought you didn't believe me, that you were angry with me." The girl looked to the cup of tea in her hands, not daring to look at the boy next to her.

"I was." Arune admitted. "But as I said, this is too serious. I couldn't just do nothing and wait for them to kill me. They tried." He shrugged.

"Yeah, I heard. The man they sent came back half dead they said." Koharu showed a small smile.

"Not half, he was in the red zone and with a bleeding effect draining even more of his life points." Arune scoffed. Now the girl really laughed, forgetting her worries and actually having fun.

Then she got serious again, her smile turning into a sad one. "We better prepare what we have to say and go tell the police as fast as possible. I don't want this to continue any longer."

Arune nodded and got up to get a piece of paper and a pen. Writing everything down was a good start. Both of them wrote down what they knew, what they had been through and what had happened. Koharu even wrote how a few of the people in the murderous guild looked. Then they both wrote what rare items they had and finished the whole thing with their usernames and passwords. It was all out there, nothing more to hide.

Both sat in silence once everything was finished. All that was left was to go to the police and hope they would believe them. And that the guild wouldn't have hidden somewhere. Koharu doubted it, those items they had acquired were too precious. And maybe powerful enough to make them thing they could fight everyone and anyone off, even the laws and system itself.

The two got their coats on and got out of the house, Arune leading the way to the closest police department. As they were walking, he nearly fell face first on the cold concrete as Koharu asked him something.

"Can I stay at your home for a few days?"

"W-wh-what... What?" Arune stuttered, barely keeping his balance. "Why?"

"I told you one of the players in the guild lives near me. He might know where exactly I live. I'm too scared to go back home." She said, again not daring to look at the boy. She knew she was asking too much of him. "Or I can go to a hotel, I have some money and..."

"No. I mean yes." Arune sighed, running a hair through his hair. It wasn't orange like his avatar's, Koharu noticed and that added to Arune's confusion made a small smile show on her lips. "I mean you can stay at home. I can't leave you alone in this mess." The boy finally finished his thought, blushing again.

"Thank you." The girl said, her cheeks also tinting a bit in pink.

Soon after the two of them got to the police department and entered it. They told a man that they wanted to talk to someone in charge, they had information about a group of murderers. It sounded weird but they didn't know how to word it, they were suddenly very worried, thinking that the policemen would think it was all their fault. But the policeman just gave them a look and told them to wait. The two sat down, looking around and wondering what would happen.

"You know, I'm an accomplice." Koharu said after a minute or two. "They might lock me up, too."

Arune's head shot up at the words. He hadn't thought of that. "But you don't have eighteen. And technically, you're helping to catch them." He tried to reason.

"Even so..."

"You haven't killed anyone either." Arune said. "Right?"

"No! Of course I haven't..." Koharu got quiet for a moment. "Unless you count that person that fell over the edge of the castle..."

"No. That was not your doing, Koharu." Arune's voice got louder. "You didn't know what he was doing, you were trying to help!" Koharu nodded but didn't say anything much. And didn't look very convinced that she was innocent.

Suddenly a man in a uniform stopped in front of them and told them to follow him. So they did. And got into a smaller room where another man waited. They sat in front of him while the first man sat next to him.

"So kids, they told me you have something important to tell me. You better not be wasting my time." He warned, looking kind of scary.

Koharu shrank in her seat so Arune decided he had to do the talking. He took the piece of paper they had written on out of his jeans' pocket and slid it across the table to the policemen. "We play this game, Sword Art Online: _Integral Factor_. And we met some people there... They have a way to kill people in the real world." The policeman who had let them to this room lifted his eyebrows, not believing this. But Arune continued on before he could stop him, saying this is nonsense. "It is true! She has seen it and they tried killing me. We've written everything we know. Please, even now we're in danger." He said.

The scary policeman took the piece of paper and his eyes roamed over it, now even his eyebrows lifting up. He didn't believe it, Arune had a bad feeling about this. Koharu couldn't even lift her eyes to see the men's reactions.

"Phone Charlie, we have new evidence. And maybe a lead." The man said after a moment, standing up. "And don't let these two go without someone to guard them, they really are in danger."

"What?" Arune and the second policeman asked in unison. The girl just looked up, her eyes wide.

"This is the SAO case. Now maybe Charlie can finally close it." The man said, taking his own phone out and getting out of the room. "And don't log in in your accounts." The man said as if it wasn't obvious.

The policeman was still confused but ran after his chief, telling the two frightened teenagers to wait in the room.

"What?" Koharu mumbled, still not believing what had happened.

"So they knew about this? How long has it been going on?" Arune asked.

Then the two finally understood what was happening. The police believed them, they were safe. The two jumped up, hugging each other before their actions could register. Then they awkwardly pulled away, instead shaking hands for the job well done.


	25. Christmas dinner

It was going to be a strange Christmas this year. For a few reasons. First, Asuna had planned a feast in the house on the twenty second floor (Kirito and Yui were responsible for the entertainment). That was the good part of the day, around lunch time. At dinner time though, the atmosphere wasn't going to be so good.

Asuna's mother had invited Kirito over. The girl couldn't believe what she was hearing at first but eventually nodded, saying she will tell the boy. He was as surprised as her but accepted the invite, thanking for it.

"I think she is warming up to you." Asuna commented as she prepared lunch in their house.

"Yes, she saw I could be used to clean the kitchen." Kirito said as he hung up a a few decorations here and there around the living room. "Maybe the whole house sometime."

Asuna laughed at the memory. "It was your fault. You started the 'food fight'."

"Maybe I should start another one today." Kirito said nonchalantly.

"Don't you dare! Then I'll have to marry a man of her choice." Asuna warned.

"I'm glad you care about me so much." The boy said sarcastically, running away as Asuna turned towards him with a spoon in hand.

Yui entered the kitchen in a minute, having a few windows opened, ready to show them to Asuna.

"Don't people find it creepy that an old man enters their homes? Every year." And after a brief pause. "Through the chimney."

Asuna let out a small laugh. "He is a good man though, leaves presents."

"Yes, about that." Yui said matter-of-factly. "It says here that he is watching us through out the whole year and depending on our behavior decides what presents to give us. This is even worse than entering through the chimney."

Asuna openly let out a giggle. "Wait till today is over, then you'll tell me if you like him." The girl said, glad she and Kirito had gotten the idea to make Yui believe in him. For now at least. Kirito had gone through a lot to block Yui's searches from finding results, saying that Santa Claus was made up.

Since everyone had to be with their family at dinner time, the friends were getting together at lunch. But, again, Kirito was going to log in later in the night to leave some presents under the tree they had in the living room. Soon enough the friends began entering the house.

Klein and Lis came first, Silica flying with Pina on her shoulder. Sinon following them with Agil.

"Wow, Asuna, it's very beautiful in here." The youngest girl said, her eyes running around the room.

"Kirito did it all. With Yui's help. I was only cooking." Asuna said.

"I tried some of the food though, it's really good." Kirito said, shrieking when his girlfriend poked him in the ribs. "It was only a bite!"

Everyone sat down, Asuna and Yui serving plates and meals. As always, everyone congratulated Asuna on her skills and said how good the food was.

"Silica, what do you want Santa Claus to give you?" Yui asked eventually.

The girl thought for a bit before answering. "I don't know what I want. I think I have everything I need. Maybe a new friend would be nice." She said thoughtfully.

"What, you don't like us anymore?" Lis asked, feigning hurt.

"What? No! I just..."

"She wants a different kind of friend." Sinon said calmly, sipping from her glass with orange juice.

"No!" Silica shrieked, her face turning red in seconds.

Everyone on the table either began speaking or laughing. Yui just turned her head around and around, not understanding what was going on, what was so funny.

Eventually the lunch ended, the talks and games after it too were over too and everyone left. The three left in the house cleaned up, washing the dishes and fixing everything. Then Asuna told Yui to go rest since Kirito and her weren't going to log in anymore. After that, Kirito told Asuna around when he would arrive at her home and everyone left, either logging on and entering sleep mode.

An hour later, someone rang at the door to Asuna's home. It was Kirito, the girl had seen him through her window. She very rarely had a chance to see him all pampered up and today was one of those chances. The boy was obviously nervous, he had been the whole day, even if he tried to hide it.

Asuna ran down the stairs and opened the door before someone else could. She wanted to talk with Kirito for a bit, calm him down, calm herself down.

"I didn't know what to bring. And I'm not good at choosing flowers. Or wine. So I bought both and hope they're good enough?" Asuna took the items from his hands, quickly giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"You shouldn't have worried about this." She said. He just shrugged, blushing a bit. Asuna let him to the room where dinner was normally server. Her mother was already there, waiting for them.

"Welcome, Kirigaya-kun." The older woman greeted, getting up to shake the boy's hand. After that was done, everyone sat at the table. Asuna across from her mother, Kirito to her right side.

"So. How are the holidays going for you?" The woman asked.

"Um... Good. I'm doing a project for school but other than that it's alright, I have quite a lot of free time." The boy answered.

"Free time that you spend playing games?"

Kirito nodded but then quickly added. "That and going out with Asuna and our friends. I even have something like a job... With this man..." Kirito realized that he couldn't exactly explain what he did for the government, it was a bit classified. Asuna's mother only lifted an eyebrow at him but didn't ask further.

"Mum, I've told you we don't only play games. We can study there, do our homeworks, help each other." Asuna decided to interject a bit.

"Yes. Asuna is a really good teacher, explains things really good. Silica and Yui would confirm that." Kirito added.

"Yui? That girl that speaks through your phone?" Asuna's mother asked. The couple sitting across the table nodded. "Wasn't she a pixie in this game of yours?"

"Well, yes. But not exactly. You see, she comes from old Aincrad, I managed to preserve her data. She is an AI, artificial inteligence, a lot more complicated than a normal program. She watches, listens and learns, evolves." Now Kirito was in his field. you couldn't shut him up. Asuna gave a small, proud smile, noticing how her mother widened her eyes, listening to Kirito explain in detail what was what and how it worked.

And so the dinner continued, with Kirito talking about computers and programs, showing Asuna's mother that he wasn't just a game but actually knew his stuff, was well educated. Eventually the trio moved the big living room, a gigantic tree taking one third of it. Asuna, Lis and Silica had decorated it themselves. Kirito remarked it was beautiful and Asuna's mother said her daughter had done a very well job with her friends.

Asuna was right. After showing her mother what the VR world, what SAO meant to her, the older woman had begun listening to her more, warming up to her friends and giving her a bit more freedom. She had seen her daughter had grown up, knew what she was doing, what she wanted from life at this stage. That she had found great friends who were always there for her, to help or have fun with. Her mother was understanding this now.

It got late, no one noticing the time passing as they were having a pleasant conversation. Once they did look at the clock though, Kirito jumped up, saying he shouldn't intrude anymore. But Asuna's mother did something unbelievable - she invited the boy to stay over. To sleep in her house. It was too late to go home anyway now. Asuna and Kirito looked at each other before the boy nodded and thanked the woman. She got out of the room, saying she was going to bed and that Asuna would show him to the guest room. Both the girl and boy blushed at the mention of it.

"So..." Kirito rubbed his neck, shy. "Your mother likes me?"

"I think so." Asuna said as she let him to his room for the night. "I think you impressed her with all the computer talk." She giggled.

"Could be." Kirito shrugged. Asuna went to a big wardrobe, taking a few sheets out before continuing on her way to the room.

"Well, you didn't start a food fight so it seems you're stuck with me for now anyway. She better like you." Asuna said.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that. Missed my chance." Kirito joked. Asuna gave him a stare and he got quiet.

They got to the guest room and Asuna fixed the bed for him. After a few wishes for a good night's sleep, Asuna left the room, promising that Santa Claus will find him here and deliver his present for Kirito to open in the morning. Kirito gave her a quick kiss and Asuna finally walked to her room, giddy from the night's events.

It was a merry Christmas indeed.


	26. A Race

"Let's make a race." Klein proposed one day.

"What kind of race?" Of course, Kirito was on board immediately.

"Like fly the fastest. Or beat a boss the fastest." Klein thought for a moment. "Maybe even a duel or two."

"That's easy. Leafa flies the fastest normally, unless Kirito is really trying. But he would win when it comes to battling." Lis said, a pout already on her face.

"Why not make it with teams of two?" Asuna asked.

"Great idea! I'm with Kirito." Lis jumped, linking arms with the boy.

"Eh? W-why?" Kirito rubbed his neck, looking to Asuna nervously. Leafa scoffed, too.

"Oh, don't worry." Lis rolled her eyes. "She won't mind, she'll be in a team with Silica or someone."

"Why not with me?" Klein sounded insulted.

"Because you're quite strong already, your team would be overpowered." The boy didn't know if he was supposed to be flattered or insulted. Silica too had confused feelings. She wasn't as bad as before, she actually fought better now. So the girl looked to Lis, pouting. The pink-haired girl only smirked, having won. Asuna sighed, patting Silica on the head.

"Don't worry, we'll beat them easily." She said with a smile.

"So I'm stuck with him or better chances with Leafa?" Sinon asked, pointing her thumb to Klein before saying to him. "You're alone, sorry."

"Oi!" The boy yelled, crossing his arms. "No love for me, as always." Kirito looked to him apologetically and decided to change the topic.

"So what's the plan? How do we race? Which boss do we kill?" He asked.

"Maybe include running in the race, not only flying?" Leafa asked. "Someone might be feeling faster on the ground, not in the air." The others agreed.

"How about the fifth floor boss?" Asuna proposed. "For the boss battle. He is quite tough and his attacks are quite big."

"Or the sixth one. He has status attacks." Kirito mused.

"Are you sure we can even fight those?" Silica asked.

"Yes, if you have a partner." Klein grumbled.

"We will fight them alone, it will be more interesting." Kirito said. Asuna nodded since she had tried this before and it was possible. "You're partner will be there though, they can switch while you heal. But there should be one boss per person, meaning you have to kill your boss."

"And the duel part?" Sinon asked. Klein was about to grumble again but the girl shut him up. "We will choose a day when Agil is not working, he will be your partner."

"He is not a girl though..." The man mumbled quietly. Sinon rolled her eyes, with this attitude he wasn't going to find a girl anytime soon.

"It will be a tag duel, two versus two." Kirito said.

"I'll be referee." Yui chimed up, flying up from Asuna's shoulder. "The system permits only one versus one duels but I can watch you all and see if you are playing fair." The others nodded, agreeing. Klein messaged Agil and after he confirmed he was free this weekend, everything was set up. All that was left was a bit of training for the teams.

Three days flew by and the weekend had come. It was time for the competitions. And the race was the first one. The rules were simple. One of the two people on the team started running, holding a branch. Once he ran half of the chosen distance, he had to give the branch to the next person who was going to fly the rest of the way.

The teams were like that - Silica, Lis, Sinon and Agil running; Asuna, Kirito, Leafa and Klein flying. Yui was referee. So everybody got in position, having a branch in one hand and ready for the starting signal. The people who were going to fly had gone to the place where they had to wait.

And then Yui gave the signal. Everybody began running. Agil and Sinon quickly took the lead, Lis after them and Silica being last, complaining her legs were shorter. But once their group neared the half, Asuna flapped her wings, taking off, gaining speed.

"Wait for the stick!" Klein yelled.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." Asuna said, not looking back. Silica smirked, holding the hand with the stick in it up for Pina to get. The small dragon bit it and flew up to Asuna, passing her the stick.

"Wait, is that even permitted?" Kirito yelled.

"You didn't say it's forbidden, Papa." Yui said. The others looked at one another, that was true. Asuna smirked, gaining speed and leaving the others behind. This had been a clever idea.

A few seconds later Klein, Leafa and Kirito flew up, too, the blond girl immediately shooting after Asuna. Kirito was following her, beating his wings. Klein was soon last.

"Why are you losing the advantage I gave you?" Agil yelled.

"You try flying against these two!" Klein shouted, waving a hand to Leafa and Kirito. The two were quickly getting closer to Asuna who, unlike them, wasn't used to flying this fast and was sure they would win in normal circumstances. But Silica and Pina had given her a few seconds and those seconds were important. Asuna close her eyes, focusing on her wings and began flying faster.

She barely made it to the finish first. But she did, this was a win for her and Silica. The smaller girl hugged her tightly.

"Good job." She said happily.

Just then Leafa and Kirito flew by, barely managing to stop, Klein following them. This meant Asuna's team had won three points, Leafa's two points, Kirito's one and Klein's zero.

"How could you lose that?" Agil asked, smacking the red-head on the back.

"You weren't running this fast either." Klein complained.

A short break, teleporting to the fifth floor and a lunch later, the group was ready for the second round - the boss fights. Asuna and Silica were first. The fifth boss was weaker to slash elements (and weaker in general) so Silica was going to fight it, while Asuna was going to take on the sixth floor boss. The two girls entered the labyrinth, quickly running by the mobs, getting to the boss room. Since it was a lower floor, there was less walking and the boss was easy to beat, even solo. Or at least easier than when they were unlocking the next floor and were weaker than now.

Asuna waited near the door while Silica and Pina fought. The girl needed a few moments to catch up with the boss' pattern but she did well, Asuna had helped her train for him. With only one switch so Silica could heal, the boss was beaten in seven minutes. The two girls went to the sixth floor, waiting for their friends there.

Leafa and Sinon were next. And Leafa fought the boss, not needing any help and finishing it off in five minutes. Next, Kirito finished the boss in three minutes. Klein, with some crazy power and luck with his critical hits, finished the boss in four minutes, angering Leafa.

Asuna, since she didn't have any advantage on the sixth boss and he hit her a few times, finished it in seven minutes, too. She had expected this but didn't mean she was happy with the results. Sinon had it a lot easier. Using bow meant no coming near the boss for it to hit you. She didn't have element advantage either but the distance helped her a lot, beating the boss in five minutes. Lisbeth had the element advantage with her mace and she also had trained with Kirito. She needed a switch to heal but still, she beat the boss in four minutes.

Agil didn't do much better than Klein had done in the flying race so the men began fighting again. Still, six minutes were a good time. And now the leader board was different.

So, since there were two teams with equal times, they got equal points, too. Now Leafa's and Sinon's team was in the lead with five points overall. Kirito's and Asuna's teams were next with four points each (much to Lis' dismay, Asuna's words of beating them could actually come true) and then Klein and Agil with three points.

The duels were left for the next day, Sunday. After a few more warnings and promises to win, the teams went their ways, away from the others so they could train.

"So what's our tactic?" Lis asked Kirito.

"I use my dual wield, you your mace." The boy shrugged. "Just try to not get hit, distract the opponent while I attack."

"So you're attacking?" Silica asked Asuna.

"You have to fight, too." The girl shook her head. "You are fast with your daggers, while the enemy is fighting with me, you can surprise them. What do you think?" The smaller girl nodded, her eyes shining. She was ready for the battle.

"We just attack, right?" Klein asked, not having a care in the world.

"Yes, just don't get in my way." Agil nodded. They both were strong, no need for tactics if your weapon could slash the opponent.

"We're going to win, this is going to be so easy." Leafa said cheerfully. "With my speed and you fighting from distance there's no way the others could beat us."

"You should take this more seriously. While I'm fighting at a distance, arrows are not as powerful as swords. And I attack slower. And even with your speed, you will be fighting to enemies. You have to be careful." Sinon said seriously. "I'll distract them with my attacks, you will do the main damage. Don't do anything risky though."

The game plans were ready. Tomorrow the winner was going to be decided.


	27. Bye

The police made Koharu and Arune create another characters and show them what had happened where. They gave them two policemen to follow them everywhere too, to protect them in case anything happened. And something almost happened but the person got scared when he saw the police uniforms and ran away. It seemed that they had figured out where Koharu lived so the girl did move into Arune's home, sleeping on the couch in the living room.

Then the police forbid the two players from logging in their profiles again until they said it was safe. Eventually Arune began getting bored so Koharu told him about the game she played before _IF_. ALfheim Online. It looked like a more girlish game, what with all the fairies and everything. But eventually the boy got into it, he could still fight and train for his _IF_ battles.

And now the roles were reversed, Koharu was the stronger one, especially when it came to magic. But they both had quite a lot of fun as she taught the boy the ins and outs of the game.

Eventually, after almost a month, something finally got in the news about the _IF_ incident. The police had talked with the company which had created the game, asked for data and access. They even had some hackers who had gotten into the profiles and inventories of the murderous guild's members. Eventually they figured out who lived where and everyone involved was arrested. Even the company was questioned as to why they had created such dangerous items and were forced to delete them. When Arune finally logged in, there was no flying ring in his inventory. But he had quite a lot of other items and col as compensation for everything, same as Koharu.

The police didn't lock up the girl, even congratulated her on her bravery for speaking up. Even more charges were added to the murderers, especially to her 'friend'. They weren't getting out any time soon.

Everything seemed to have ended now. Everyone was safe.

And there was no more need for Koharu to stay at Arune's. The two of them were packing her stuff so the girl could go back to her home. The days, weeks the two had lived together were interesting to say the least. The first main thing that was a problem was the police explaining to Arune's parents what had happened. The poor people nearly took their son's VR set. Next was the fact that Koharu came to leave with them. She was living alone since her parents had moved to another city for now to help her grandparents. So the poor girl had to deal with this alone at the moment. She had decided not to tell her parents so she wouldn't worry them. And Arune thought she was crazy to do this.

But it was still a fun time. Before Koharu told him about ALO, the two of them spent whole days doing nothing but eat and watch tv, lazying around. They went out only to go to school and Arune always walked Koharu to her school and then waited for her so they could go home together (the policemen creepily following them all the time).

Koharu even tried cooking a few times, not always successful. Her pancakes were always awesome though.

So saying goodbye now, it was sad. And a bit weird. The two had just gotten used to living together, the awkwardness was over. And now they were about to go back to only spending time together online. Frankly, neither thought that was enough.

And yet, Arune could see it. When she thought the boy wasn't looking, Koharu always stared at him. More specifically, at his scar. She was curious, he supposed, like everyone else before. So now, as the girl was about to leave, it was as good time as any to talk with the girl about it.

"Koharu." The girl looked at Arune. "Want to know something about me? Specifically?"

Her eyes widened, she knew she was caught. "No." She shook her head, looking back down to her luggage, her cheeks tinting pink.

"Really?" The boy lifted his eyebrows, a small smile on his lips. He didn't mind talking about the scar. It had been there for years now, he didn't mind it. Normally it was the other people who weren't in ease because of it, not him.

"Un." Koharu nodded, still not looking up. Arune decided to just talk.

"When I was younger, like seven or eight years ago, I had this friend. He got me into swords and sword fighting. But of course, we didn't have swords back then, we had only sticks." The boy shrugged. "And movies, books, legends, the Internet. It was fun. We even dueled sometimes, when there weren't any grown ups around to get the wrong idea and stop us." He could see he had Koharu's full attention. Many thought the story to be something serious and then got disappointed when they saw how stupid it actually was. She would think the same, he was sure. "But eventually we got older and stronger, it wasn't really a game anymore."

"Why? What happened?" Koharu finally asked.

"He got carried away. I seemed to be better and he got angry, bringing some rusty old sword he had found in his grandfather's attic or something. And as you can see, this scar is the result."

"He hit you three times?" The girl asked again.

"No, he didn't hit me with the edge, didn't exactly cut me. Just hit me with it, he hadn't gripped the sword properly and the wide side hit me. That's why there are three lines." Arune shrugged. "It's not some heroic tale or a sign that I'm a villain. It's just a scar from a game that wasn't really a game."

"This was dangerous." Koharu exclaimed.

"Yes but... Too late now."

"It really does make you look like a villain though." The girl giggled.

"Enough to make you scream and run away from me." Arune rolled his eyes.

"I was scared back then. I had to steal from you, kill you and ask for your help. Not in that order necessary." Koharu gave a small smile. "What was I supposed to think?"

"For starters, that my hair looks cool." Arune joked.

"It does. Kind of like your head is on fire." Koharu laughed.

"That's not... That's not cool." And so the bickering began. It didn't end until the two were in front of Koharu's home hours later and Arune had to leave. He had helped with her luggage but now that he had nothing to do, he felt awkward.

"Well, I will see you around." Arune said, running a hair through his hair. "Or online."

"Yeah..." Koharu nodded. Then the two just stayed there, at the door, looking everywhere but each other.

"Bye then."

"Bye."

And the two just kept standing then. In a few moments, Koharu sighed, closing her eyes. She stepped forward and leaned on her toes, quickly planting a kiss on Arune's cheek, just above his scar. Then she stepped back and slammed the door shut. The boy just stood there, staring at the door, blushing.

Eventually he went home. He logged in in _IF_ , finally explaining to his guild mates and friends what had happened. They knew some part of the story, every player in the game knew a bit. But Arune told them the whole story. The day was pronounced a day for feast and everyone got in the guild building, making or bringing things to eat or drink. Arune needed this, a bit of change in his almost gruesome life lately. Having fun with his old friends was nice.

And yet he checked his friend list quite often, looking at the newest name there. He finally had Koharu in his friend list but the name hadn't lit up, she hadn't gotten online, not today anyway. But Arune got an idea. Why not invite the girl in his guild? She could finally find some friends and actually have fun in this game. Arune decided to ask the leaders...


	28. The Duels

The day had come. The duels were today. Four pairs were going to fight, only one was going to win.

Yui decided which pair to fight which in the first round. A person from every team had walked up to the little pixie and she had spun in a circle, pointing the people for the first duel. The other two were for the second duel. And so the first fight was between Kirito's and Klein's teams. Lis and Agil got ready, too. Everyone else moved away.

"Any last words?" The katana user asked.

"You need to say yours." Lis said, quite sure that she and Kirito would win.

Everyone got in position, their weapons out. Yui flew above them and gave the signal. The duel began. Kirito ran forward, both swords ready to use skills. Klein ran to him while Agil focused on Lis. Klein managed to parry most of Kirito's hits but still took damage. Meanwhile, Kirito didn't even have to worry about Klein's attacks as he was only defending for now. He was waiting for Agil to finish off Lis and come help him.

Lis knew how to fight though. She knew she was going to get targeted so she wasted time, too. No matter how Klein defended, he was still taking damage. And the girl ran faster than Agil and his heavy axe so she could dodge his hits better. Klein saw Agil was having troubles. So it was time for plan B, even if there was no such thing.

"Switch!" The bandana warrior said and Agil immediately took his place in front of Kirito while Klein went after Lis. The girl couldn't outrun him and he quickly caught up and lowered her health to the red zone while Agil easily tanked Kirito's hits. But Kirito saw this and turned around to help his teammate.

That was a mistake. Agil saw the chance and quickly activated a small and simple skill. hitting Kirito in the legs and making him fall. Klein was just about to deliver the finishing blow when Yui told him to stop, Lis had lost. The boy ran back to where Klein and Kirito were. The merchant was about to activate an axe skill but Kirito was faster slashing him with his swords. Klein attacked him from behind though and Kirito lost almost half of his life points. But since Agil was on the ground now, Kirito could turn around and fight properly with Klein.

So he did, using skill connect, stunning Klein and beating him. It was Agil against Kirito now. Klein walked away, standing next to Lis, scoffing, not happy with the results. Two minutes later Agil stepped next to him, putting a hand on the katana user's shoulder.

"It was a good fight."

"But we get zero points."

"You know Kirito is too fast for me." Agil shrugged.

And so the next match began. Asuna and Silica against Leafa and Sinon. Asuna and Leafa immediately got crossed their swords, sparks flying around. Meanwhile Sinon rained arrows on them and Silica. The small girl was fast though, she ran around, managing to slash Leafa or Sinon from time to time.

"Silica! The arrows!" Asuna yelled. That meant the girl had to focus on Sinon. Both girls knew that so the archer quickly changed her target, aiming only at the beast tamer.

Wait! Sinon's eyes widened. Where was Pina? And just then the small dragon screeched, using a move of its own and creating a fog around Sinon. She couldn't see anything, couldn't aim. And felt something cold at her throat.

"Give up?" Came Silica's small voice.

"Yes." Sinon nodded. She was still a new player in ALO, close combat wasn't her thing.

So only Leafa was left. She did everything she could. But no matter what she did, Asuna always managed to parry her hits. Leafa was known as one of the fastest players. But then Asuna began playing ALO, too. The blond girl could see why she had gotten the name Lightning Flash.

After her latest skill getting dodged, Leafa waited for Asuna's attack. And the girl delivered, using Mother's Rosario, the skill given to her by Yuuki. Leafa managed to dodge or parry the first few hits but then Silica was behind her, slashing with her dagger, messing up her rhythm. Asuna hit her and the two girls won their duel with almost no problems.

So now the fight for points was between Kirito and Lis, and Asuna and Silica. Since the teams also had equal amont of points, this really was the duel for first and second place in this race of theirs.

The teams got on the field, exchanging a few words before the last match. Klein, Agil, Leafa and Sinon sat on the grass nearby, wondering and betting who would win. But really, it was not clear. Asuna and Kirito, just as Lis and Silica had fought together in so many battles, they knew each other. Could one really beat the other?

"I will fight Kirito, you and Pina go for Lis." Asuna said, her face serious. The girl was concentrating.

"But can you beat his two swords?" The smaller girl worried. "You are faster but he still has two weapons. You have dueled before and you've never won."

"That was before I was playing fair." Asuna smirked. "Just focus on Lis." And Silica nodded, thrusting the older girl.

"I will fight Asuna, she has never won against me. You fight Silica. And beware of her tricks with Pina." Kirito said, smiling happily. He was sure the win was his, Lisbeth wasn't as sure.

"You sure you can win?" She asked.

"If I can't you will come help. But I doubt there will be need for it." Kirito looked to the other side of the makeshift field. Asuna was looking at him, all serious and scary. But they had dueled before, he knew he could win.

And so the match began. Kirito and Asuna immediately began using skills on one another, jumping and spinning, making the air around them colour blue and red, pink and purple. Meanwhile Silica and Lis ran around them, exchanging blows. Lis knew by now what to expect of Pina's tricks so they didn't work on her. Silica was worried. But she couldn't just give up, Asuna was believing in her.

The small girl suddenly charged forward, stratling Lis and slashing her quickly, making her drop her mace. While she had a moment to breathe, Silica yelled to Pina.

"Go help Asuna. Create fog." The small dragon quickly flew over the couple fighting. Asuna noticed it and jumped back. Kirito was about to follow her when a gust of air hit him and he was surrounded by a white veil, not being able to see anything.

Asuna had turned around, almost stepping on Lis' mace. She managed not to fall and kick the weapon away, pointing her rapier at Lis who had just reached down. The pink-haired girl looked up and lifted her hands, surrendering. So that left only Kirito.

Just as Yui was announcing that Lis was defeated, Kirito jumped out of his confusion and the fog, charging at Silica. But Asuna jumped in front of him, parrying both his swords. The boy stumbled back and the small girl used the chance to cut him with a skill. But Kirito quickly recovered, activating skill after skill, making both Asuna and Silica jump away from him and defend. Asuna even activated Yuuki's skill again in order to keep up.

Eventually Silica messed up and was hit a few times, her health decreasing quickly. She was defeated, too. But at least Kirito had less life points than Asuna, the girl had a chance to win. Kirito's swords flew around him, defending and attacking. Meanwhile Asuna jumped and spun parrying and thrusting her rapier.

"You remember how I won all of our previous duels, right?" Kirito smirked.

"Maybe this is about to change." Asuna smiled.

The fight continued on, their friends cheering from the sidelines, Yui flying above the fighting couple. Asuna was getting tired and Kirito could see this. It was time for her to use her secret weapon.

Kirito used a few skills with his Skill Connect and Asuna activated Mother's Rosario so she could parry the hits. Once they both stopped for a moment once their skills had ended, the first thing Asuna did was spin around and get behind Kirito. He was about to turn around when Asuna took his left hand with her own, moving closer so she could whisper in his ear.

"You will do all the cooking for a month if you activate even one more skill." The girl said in a low and dangerous voice. Kirito immediately stopped moving and dropped his swords.

"Mama wins!" Yui yelled with her pixie voice.

"What? Oh, come on! Was that even permitted?"

"You didn't say anything about talking during the duels." Asuna smiled and shrugged, giving a high-five to Silica.

And so, this race of their was over. Klein and Agil were last, followed by Leafa and Sinon. Kirito and Lis were in second place and the winners were, of course, Asuna and Silica.

"Happy that you partied with Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked sweetly.

"Very." Silica pouted.

Kirito aslo wasn't happy with the results but he preferred Asuna's cooking than his own. It was a worth the sacrifice.


	29. The Best Birthday

**A/N: We all know Asuna's birthday is on the 30th but since chapter 30 is supposed to be something else... this is the 29th chapter**

 **Also, yes, imagine, I'm updating... almost an year later but shh**

* * *

Asuna's birthday was always both a small and big event. Small as in there were hardly any friends of hers, mainly family members. There were rarely any expensive presents, too. Her mother didn't want to pamper Asuna too much and make her spoiled. But it was a big event as her mother always went all out when it came to the party itself. It was always fancy, in a restaurant, with the dress code being just as if not even more fancier.

But now things were different. Lis took the girl for a walk and some shopping in the mall, Silica joined them for some cake, Kirito took her for the afternoon, the two of them going to an aquarium. Then, after a stop at Agil's cafe where everyone was gathered to wish Asuna a happy birthday, the girl had gotten home, having a quiet dinner with her mother and brother.

It didn't seem much but it meant a lot to the girl. Spending the day out with her friends was something she would always love to do. Besides, the real fun began in two days. The group of friends had found a cottage, payed the money and were about to spend there three days and two nights.

(Lis joked that they would go there just to log in ALO and still spend their time online. Kirito kept quiet when she had said that, Asuna noticed. Maybe she had to hide his VR set...)

The day where they went to the cottage couldn't come faster. The girls had packed their luggage, the boys were planning where to go in search of adventures during the day. The rooms were decided (Lis and Asuna in the main bedroom; Sinon, Sugu and Silica in the other; Kirito and Klein in the living room downstairs, together on the small sofa somehow; Agil wasn't coming, being busy with his café - bar), the snacks were bought (mainly Asuna's favourite), Yui's camera was charged.

The day was here and everyone piled up at Asuna's house, waiting for their taxi. Soon, a minivan stopped in front of the group of friends and they began filling its back with their bags, Asuna's mother silently watching from behind the living room curtains.

'Jeez, Lis! Why do you need two suitcases? What are you bringing for a three-day trip?!' Klein complained.

'Nothing much, just some cards, boardgames, my laptop...' She began listing as Klein continued complaining, trying to fit her luggage in the vehicle.

Meanwhile Kirito and Asuna were talking over their plans with Sugu and Sinon, Silica listening to them. Kirito was planning to take Asuna on a date during the second day but of course, the girl didn't know that. Everyone else did and kept quiet, it was a surprise.

It was September but the weather was still somewhat warm and there were hot springs near the chosen cottage so everyone was excited about them, too. Klein especially, even if Lis continued hitting him on the back of his head everytime he began imagining too many things.

Finally, their trip began. The drive was fun at first, until the hype died down a bit and everyone began complaining how cramped it was. After four hours, they were finally there, Klein jumping up and down to losen his joints. Kirito only shook his head as he passed beside him, walking towards the cottage to unlock it (technological mumbo-jumbo, he just had to put his phone near an electrical device installed next to the door).

Then the two boys saw the retreating backs of the girls as they left their luggage in the minivan in favour of exploring the cottage. They sighed as they had to bring all the bags in, enduring the whining of the driver about how slow they were.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was in the living room, Lis and Sugu pretending they totally hadn't left their luggage on purpose. Asuna only giggled innocently, she was the birthday girl, she could get away with it. Everyone was tired from the long drive so it was decided that today was going to be a lazy day. Klein and Lis began fighting over the TV remote, Silica decided to take Yui's camera and walk her around the cottage properly, Sugu decided to explore outside, see where the hotsprings were.

Kirito, sensing he could sneak, pulled out his AmuSphere from his small, black bag, deciding to hide in one of the upstair bedrooms. His plan, unluckily for him, didn't work out.

'Thought you'd try something like this.' Came Asuna's voice behind him. Kirito froze, crouched, slowly turning around with a fake grin.

'I was just going to check on our house, nothing else. I'm not sure I locked it prope-' He noticed the knife in Asuna's right hand and quickly snapped his mouth shut.

'Wasn't going to grind this new event from yesterday at all, right?' Asuna lifted an eyebrow. She was trying to be stern, she really was, but this was too fun and her lips were pulling into a small smile.

'Well... Yes... But only for a bit. I have nothing to do anyway...'

'Come help us with cooking dinner then, I was about to chop the potatoes. Sinon must have finished her carrots.' Sighing and ruffling his hair, Kirito followed. This was better than being stabbed, he supposed. Not that Asuna was really going to stab him. He just knew how skilled his girlfriend was with sharp objects, especially knives and rapiers.

And so, the first day passed as uneventful as could be. The dinner was praised highly, then the boardgames were pulled out and scattered around the floor. By 11pm everyone was tired so the girls retired to their bedrooms upstairs while Kirito and Klein wrestled with the sofa, trying to turn it into its bed form. It didn't work so they played rock-paper-scissors for it and Kirito ended up sleeping in a small mountain of covers on the ground.

On the next morning Lis, Silica and Klein woke everyone up early, ready to go to the hot springs. Grumpily, everyone got up and dressed, heading out. They were to spend the whole day there, alternating between the actual hot springs and the pools inside, racing and jumping in the cold water.

Eventually though, it was time for Kirito to act on his surprise for Asuna. He asked her if she wanted to eat somewhere else (pool canteen food wasn't good enough for dates) and the two left.

'I'm so jealous...' Sugu sighed.

'Well.' Klein grinned. 'We're on something like a date now, alone, you girls and me.' He winked at the four girls looking at him (some with disgust, some about to burst laughing, some confused). They promptly turned around, talking about going back to the (divided by gender) hot springs. Klein was left alone, tending to his hurt ego.

Meanwhile, Asuna and Kirito were walking around the small town, hand in hand, talking about this and that, pointing out sights, entering shops. Asuna was pleasantly surprised by Kirito's idea to take her on a date here, just the two of them. Maybe she was going to let him log in ALO tonight, just for a bit.

They had lunch in a restaurant next to a lake, viewing the mountains beyond it. Kirito payed the bill, not relenting when Asuna asked to split it. They went to a game center then, Kirito trying to show off his skills on some old games but Asuna easily kicking his butt (though she had the suspicion he let her win). Next, they walked down the market Street, buying some snacks to nibble on as the sky darkened. Kirito even won a plush kitten for Asuna from a game booth.

By this point, their friends were dying of boredom in their cottage so the couple decided to have dinner with them. They didn't hurry much while walking back though. The two rarely had time for such long and nice dates, what with their busy school lives and busy VR lives. It was a nice getaway.

Once they were at the cottage, Asuna was against surprised when it turned out she wouldn't have to cook dinner tonight. Lis, Sinon and Sugu had taken care of that. Klein and Silica had fixed the table and helped here and there.

Once dinner was eaten and the plates were washed (Kirito and Asuna decided to do that as thanks to their friends), it was time for boardgames again.

Klein and Kirito disappeared somewhere after a quick excuse that they'll join the girls later. Fifteen minutes later, there was a yell outside and a sound from something heavy falling. So the girls ran out to the backyard to see Klein under a small heap of fireworks and firecrackers, a bucket next to him.

'What happened here?' Asked Sinon worriedly while Lis, Silica and Sugu tried to hide their laughter behind her.

'Another surprise...' Klein groaned.

'A failed one.' Kirito rolled his eyes but still laughed at his friend's misfortune.

'We can pretend to be surprised.' Silica giggled.

The girls helped with the last preparations and soon enough the sky was being coloured by loud and sparkly explosions. Everyone cheered as they gazed up.

Then, Klein began howling, yelling the lyrics to 'Happy Birthday' as loud as he could. Moments later the others joined, too. Asuna didn't know whether to laugh at the funny picture in front of her or to cry, thanking her friends for everything they've done for her.

This was definitely the best birthday she had had so far.


End file.
